#it was a tiny lizard my cat dragged
Note
Au where Rusty is actually a descendant of shadowclan cats, making him have a much more stealthy looking and looks more like a calico cat
okay, I'll be doing multiple changes to canon
brokenstar's mess started earlier, even before rusty was born. spottedleaf, redtail, and willowpelt are amberleaf and stonepelt's kits (this is how I do it in my au), sandstorm is rosetail's kit. with nobody, she has no father. longtail as dappletail and stormtail’s kit. (and many more family tree changes honestly)
allrightly. amberleaf was expecting kits for the brokenstar agenda, she was still out late in her pregnancy because of an oopsie shortage of prey, she went out to get something maybe. she had accidentally wandered a bit too far and a twoleg saw a wounded, starved, expecting feral cat and grabbed her. she went to the vet and her kits (rusty, princess, filou tommy and luna, but the last 3 are irrelevant) were born safely and when they were old enough given. amberleaf was placed somewhere cozy for a feral cat. she lives a happy life away from the chaos of the clans
anyways rusty is a small orange and brown tortie. tiny round ears, webbed paws, everything. this creacher looks like a shadowclan cat 100%
he, like in canon, wants out and explore the forest, but here graypaw does attack him a little harder because that's a shadowclan cat, what is a shadowclan cat doing here? then graypaw, bluestar, and lionheart who came in to see what was happening saw that this idiot was a kittypet who didn't know anything about shadowclan. so they decided to take him in!
he was obviously not welcomed very well, being a kittypet and looking exactly like those damned shadowclan cats (and spottedleaf, redtail and willowpelt for some reason) longtail wanted to prove his worth and didn’t want that fucking rando joining clan so he attacked rusty as in canon. rusty was able to win the fight like in canon, tho he was a little more wounded than what canon says (some unpleasant cuts n stuff)
the fire alone prophecy still was so firepaw it is! he got his name and then ravenpaw rushed in excaiming that redtail was heavily wounded (not dead!) willowpelt and mousefur were dragging redtail to camp and brought the deputy in spottedleaf’s den. spottedleaf had just finished taking care of longtail’s ear and rushed in the den with her siblings (and mousefur). firepaw was told to follow them.
mousefur was fine so she went outside to report the fight to bluestar (tigerclaw went with them but still hasn’t come back for some reason). willowpelt had some nasty duts aswell so spotted dealt with everyone’s wounds and the 3 older cats were talking with young firepaw. they were kinda surprised to see how he ressembled a shadowclan cat, but was a kittypet and looked like them. they can’t be sure of rusty’s parentage, but they do adopt him as their new little brother.
firepaw, redtail and willowpelt spend some time together in the healer’s den because of their wounds. eventually firepaw and willowpelt are allowed to retake their duties, redtail has to stay. oh and tigerclaw came back! he’s checking on redtail and is his typical grump.
firepaw is given to lionheart and tigerclaw for now and since redtail is too wounded for the deputy duties lionheart is acting deputy. i forgot to tell you about redtail’s wounds but his throat was heavily damaged and it’s quite certain that he’ll never talk again. eating is also quite difficult because of the damage around the throat so the man is clearly confined in the healers den until he’s fully healed up. he also doesn’t want to talk about how he was wounded, he doesn’t remember fully, but when he thinks about it again every time he gets too stressed.
firepaw’s great at hunting, especially when having to go trough clumps of bushes to hide him. he’s a natural at sneaking up on his prey and fellow clanmates. he also lizards, but because he lives in thunderclan and they don’t eat that they’re quite rare pleasures for him. he does his thing like in canon
and then yellowfang shows up. she sees this little lost idiot and is confused as for why a cat that looks exactly like a shadowclan cat, and amberleaf specifically is doing in thunderclan. he feeds her and she gets in thunderclan as a prisoner as usual, but many cats start to doubt firepaw, a cat that clearly has shadowclan ancestry. especially now that he allowed a shadowclan cat to stay in their territory. tigerclaw pounces on this occasion and starts making firepaw feel very, very unwelcome in thunderclan. (he also did thisto ravenpaw, so the two are outcasts in their clan)
redtail isn’t healing properly. tigerclaw visits from time to time to see how his “friend” is doing, but every time he visits redtail gets sicker. bluestar tries to mediate all the chaos, but it’s quite hard. firepaw, graypaw, ravenpaw, bluestar and tigerclaw then go to the moonstone. this is when shadowclan attacks. rosetail is killed, so is lionheart and lynxkit, thornkit and cinderkit have been stolen by shadowclan. there’s general chaos and sandpaw physically attacks firepaw because she blames him (and raven) for shadowclan’s attack. graypaw is also very unhappy about his mentor’s death and doesn’t want to talk to firepaw anymore.
spottedleaf heals everyone up, but the wound firepaw got from sandpaw takes some time to properly heal up. one day he goes to the healers den for a check up, but spottedleaf isn’t there and he sees tigerclaw feed redtail some holly berries. he yells ad tells everyone what tigerclaw is doing, but nobidy wants to believe firepaw. there’s a huge mess but eventually redtail manages to drag himself out of the healers den and everyone understands that firepaw’s right.
tigerclaw is chased out of thunderclan and turns to some rogues he had “befirended” and attacks thunderclan. killing bluestar(okay no some other rogue killed her) and some other cats. firepaw lucked out and took spotted, willow, red, raven and yellowfang with him out of the chaos.since there is no leader anymore tigerclaw names himself thunderclan’s de facto leader and becomes tigerstar. he names darkstripe his deputy. but keeps a close eye on the idiotic dark gray tabby.
firepaw and his clique go look for the lost windclan (because they were chased out) and they find a disheveled group, barely surviving and having lost many of their cat. tallstar, deadfoot and barkface had been killed by brokenstar and his followers and they barely survived. (the only survivors were aspenfall, pigeonspring(pigeonpaw) morningflower(and her newborn kits) ashfoot (with eaglekit), thrushwing and runningkit)
starclan drops a sign that fire has to repair the broken clan and somehow becomes firestar, leader of windclan, at 11 moons old. he gets his lives at the moonstone (from bluestar, lionheart, rosetail, windstar, thunderstar, shadowstar, riverstar, skystar and gray wing) (yes all the founders because this is a very exceptional situation) fire makes aspenfall his deputy because christ. spottedleaf and yellowfang are the healers, but their “clan” lives in a very precarious situation
they spend some time away from the clans, healing up and preparing to retake their land with the other clans. they are living close to the barn where barley relaxes and are allowed to live from the mice and rats in te area. they allow some street cats and kittypets to join their ranks. this is where they learn about bloodclan’s existence.
back in the forest tigerstar is ruling thunderclan trough voilence, any cat who disobeys him gets discretely disposed of and tigerclaw’s rogues are brutal to the clancats. tigerstar and brokenstar discuss about merging their clans. both accept because they want to kill the other and take everything over. it’s an uncomfy alliance, but it works (for now)/ this does mean that cinder, lynx and thorn can finally reunite with their (still living) family.
they also kinda sort of add riverclan in their thing, but crookedstar clearly doesn’t have the same amount of power that tiger and broken have, they are fully subjugaded, but on the long run since the 3 clans are together gray can be with silverstream (not directly after the unholy mess is done, but pretty quickly it gets accepted) so storm and feather are living with silver and gray taking care of them both being alive n stuff.
this continues for a little while and gets kinda stable at one point.
firestar and windclan on their part are preparing and they finally feel strong enough to reclaim their home. they send some cats to scout the area and they learn about everything that is happening in the forest; some of the more jaded cats propose to disrupt the status quo tigerclan has and swoop in later, but firestar’s too much of a good man to do that.
aspen’s kinda annoyed and wants revenge so he concocts a plan with some others. one of the clan’s new members plus redtail will go to the forest and cause drama one way or another. redtail wasn’t in on the plan but is told that firestar wants him to go to the forest. they arrive and that new guy yells about how the true leader of thunderclan is here to take his place again and a fight breaks out. the rando did manage to get them and redtail out of danger and let all the cats in tigerclan fight it out. tigerstar and brokenstar kill each other, many other cats die. a lot of death. the cats with a canon disability probably get theirs in this battle.
after the battle is done their camp is in shambles and darkstripe, the fucker has to become leader since tigerstar, brokenstar and blackfoot were killed (crooked and leopard had been “disposed” of earlier) so now tigerclan was led by darkstar. poor, pathetic darkstar and this was the chance for windclan to retake their land. darkstar doesn’t want to obviously, but he’s too much of a weak beast to do anything, but some skirmishes that don’t mean a lot. so they kinda compromise and windclan gets their home again.
bloodclan had been observing the drama and this is when scourge decided to swoop in. both clans were weak and bloodclan menaced both clans. darkstar gets the tigerstar treatment and the two clans lose. they have to flee the forest (very, very rude). they leave and camp somewhere for the time being.
this is were tnp starts (earlier than in canon) one of firestar’s kits (whom he had with ravenflight (thrushwing carried them), sandstorm’s kit, feathertail and stormfur, and smokepaw from shadowclan have to find a way to bring their clans to a new place. they go on some bonding adventures and are the closest group you can imagine and they bring their clans to the lake.
at the lake the 4 clans split up again. firestar continues leading windclan. his deputy is now thrushwing. goldenflower leads thunderclan and has sandstorm as her deputy. silverstream takes the mantle of riverclan’s lead with graystripe </3 being deputy. flintfang becomes shadowclan’s leader and makes cinderpelt (who decided to stay in shadowclan and is still a warrior) deputy.
extra notes because this isn’t long enough <3
willowpelt’s last litter (sorrel, soot and rain live in windclan)
redtail eventually manages to take some warrior duties again and supports his little brother to lead the clan. he’s fully mute
ravenflight never leaves windclan and was always at firestar’s side (they are the gays) fire and raven have more kits than their first litter
sandstorm has no mate. her kits are her duty and nobody else’s (her kits are squirrel and leaf)
silverstar is very petty and chaotic and would be very hilarious to watch. graystripe lives in riverclan with his wife and kids
graystripe eventually passes and silverstar makes feathertail deputy (nepotism until the end). featherstar breaks the cycle by naming someone who isn’t related to her deputy
thorn returned to thunderclan to be with his littermates (who someone survive all of this) cinder just prefered shadowclan’s environment. they stay in contact and her littermates are very proud of her
amberleaf lives a long and fulfilling life, never having to deal with the clans anymore. when she dies she ascends to starclan and lears everything that her kits did; she’s simultaneously amused, terrified and annoyed
flintstar’s honestly the default answer for me when i need a shadowclan leader. he does his best to be the greatest leader and he is the defender of all kits
swiftpaw and lynxkit survive! swift becomes swiftfang, lynx becomes a healer and gets the name lynxflower, both siblings live in thunderclan with their younger siblings tawnyfang and bramblethorn
sandstorm becomes sandstar. she never fully forgave firestar, but she did stop hating him as much. every time she sees the scar he kept from her attacking him she wants to apologise, but she’s too proud.
honestly from here Po3 can happen nearly like in canon, but this is already too long so
#warrior cats#warrior cats au#firestar#tigerstar#brokenstar#darkstripe#redtail#spottedleaf#aspenfall#ravenpaw#fireraven#sandstorm#willowpelt#bluestar#lionheart#this was a wild trip#hope you like it#this is long af but i'm very proud of it
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Gundham, Kazuichi, and Mikan with an Ultimate veterinarian S/O
warnings; light cussing, unedited, inaccurate depictons of what vets do, gender neutral pronouns for reader, gn!reader
Request; Hi there! Can I request gundham, kazuichi, and mikan with an Ultimate veterinarian S/O? Maybe they have wild animals by their side all the time :) thanks!
Gundham
◊ Gundham would trust you 100%
◊ He relies on you a bunch.
◊ Knowing that you are a veterinarian who loves animals, is all he needed to know to trust his life and the dark devas life with you.
◊ Gundham is pretty protective and careful with his devas, so if anytime the devas showed signs of a small sickness, he’d immediately go to you.
◊ He’d be so concerned for his devas so he would always go to you to see what’s wrong.
◊ Most of the time, the devas are fine and Gundham was just being a worried dad.
◊ But you’d be lying if you said you didn’t get a biiiiiiit happy every time he rushed into your clinic with a worried expression on his face.
◊ You assure him that his devas look fine, but he still insists you check them thoroughly.
◊ As usual, they are fine and he looks relieved.
◊ Though actually, one time he had faked his worry for the devas so he could have an excuse to see you.
◊ He was planning to ask you out while you examined his loyal companions.
◊ “So erm, how are my dark devas doing? Perfectly, I assume.” He spoke in his low tone of voice. “Well, Maga-G, Sun-D and Jum-P are doing fine. Except for Cham-P, he may be a tad dehydrated. If you monitor him carefully and make sure he drinks water, he’ll be good.” Gundham nodded with a nervous but confident grin, words not quite hitting his ears yet, “Indeed, so would you like to- Wait WHAT-?” Gundham paled, registering your words a bit too slow and freaking out.
◊ “Cham-P iS DYING?? WHAT WILL I- Oh goD-” Gundham hyperventilates, grabbing your hands unconsciously and squeezing them so tight it slightly hurt.
◊ “Please, S/o, save his life!!”
◊ You looked at him with surprise, face heating up at the sudden touch.
◊ ”G-gundham, Cham-P isn’t dying, he just needs to drink more water.” You cut off.
◊ Gundham suddenly froze, face heating up from the realization of his hands in yours.
◊ “O-oh, I see my mistake.” You laughed at his reaction, relishing in the feeling of his hands still resting in yours.
◊ “So what did you want to ask me earlier?” Gundham’s eyes widened, “Oh uh- I was just wondering if... Yo-you’d help me nurse Cham-P back to health?” He chickened out at the last minute, mentally scolding himself for losing his confidence.
◊ Though you knew that wasn’t what he meant to say since you had told him about Cham-P after he had tried to ask you something, you still accepted happily.
◊ Your animals and his dark devas had a few debates as you and Gundham helped Cham-P drink from the water nozzle thingy.
◊ “Water is not wet.” Maga-G scoffed, examining his nails. “Okay but, water makes things wet, so how is it not wet?” Your bird argued, looking at Maga-G with disbelief. “I have to pee.” Jum-P blurted out, hopping back inside the cage to do his business. “Can I come!?” San-D followed suit, hopping into the cage as well.
◊ “What do you think they’re talking about?” You questioned, looking at the animals argue.
◊ “Obviously, they are discussing their plan to destroy the world. My dark devas have the intelligence of a god!” Gundham boasted, staring at the dark devas with pride.
◊ “-No, you’re wrong, I’m right, shut up.” Maga-G ended the argument unfairly, stomping his foot down(if you get the reference, ily).
Kazuichi
◊ Kazuichi would be scared when he first saw you walk by with your army of animals following you.
◊ “I-is that a tiger!?”
◊ He’d be kind of intimidated by you at first, not wanting to get on your bad side and have your animals maul him.
◊ Other than your army of animals catching his eye, he thought you were pretty cute.
◊ Though he was itching to ask you out, he was too scared to go within 5 meters distance near you.
◊ He’d kind of just, scream cheesy pick-up lines to you.
◊ “HEY S/O! ARE Y-” “What!?” “ARE YOU-” “Can you come closer!? I can’t hear you!” “HAHAHA, N-NEVERMIND IT’S NOTHING!”
◊ Eventually, Kazuichi warmed up to your animals(it’s kind of the opposite really-).
◊ Funny story how actually, Kazuichi was working on the underbelly of his machines, and he needed his wrench. Assuming Fuyuhiko was still there—Which he wasn’t—, he asked for a wrench.
◊ (un)Luckily for him, one of your dogs had been there, and it had picked up the wrench and brought it to Kazuichi’s outstretched hand.
◊ “Thanks, Fuyu.” He accepted the wrench, expecting a grunt of ‘You’re welcome.’
◊ He, however, did not expect a very loud, “BORK!” in return.
◊ He screeched, wincing as he jolted up and hit his forehead on the hard metal underneath his machine.
◊ Not long after the bark echoed through the area, you had come running, your forehead creased from worry.
◊ “Oh, there you are!” You huffed out in relief as your eyes caught sight of the familiar coloured fur.
◊ You looked down at Kazuichi’s bottom half sticking out underneath from a machine, hearing a groan coming from him.
◊ “Kazuichi?” You squealed when you heard a- “S-s/o!?” come from underneath the machine, A “BANG!” following after.
◊ “Ow- U-uh hey S/o..!” He greeted waving his hand awkwardly from underneath the metal.
◊ “Uh, A-are you going to come out?” You asked, concerned for—what sounded like—his head injury.
◊ “U-um nope. It’s uh, it’s cozy underneath here.” He refused politely, not wanting you to see his red face.
◊ Literally red(or pink??) face; Blood had been running down his fucking forehead from the two hard bonks against the metal.
◊ The dog could smell the bullshit(and the blood) emitting from Kazuichi’s words, and bit gently onto his sneaker, urging out a scream from the pinkette.
◊ It pulled him out from underneath the machine, revealing his bloody forehead.
◊ You gasped in shock as you hurried him up to his feet, hastily bringing him to your clinic.
◊ He blushed at your close proximity, letting you drag him to a waiting seat.
◊ He watched warily as your animals ran into the backroom of your clinic, bringing you medical supplies as you carefully examined his forehead.
◊ The animals watched you two as you disinfected his forehead, making Kazuichi nervous from the many tiny animal eyes glaring into him.
◊ He tensed as he felt a ferret climb his shoulder, clenching his eyes shut.
◊ The ferret kissed him on his forehead, leaving you and him speechless.
◊ Well shit, the ferret had more confidence than you.
Mikan
◊ Mikan thought your ultimate was pretty cool!
◊ Since you were both in the medical field, you two had many things to talk about, therefore getting along unsurprisingly well.
◊ At first, she was a bit scared of your big animals, your small ones not so much.
◊ All your animals seemed to really really like her, and they’d be pretty protective of her.
◊ If Teruteru had said something perverted to her, one of your bears would maul him.
◊ Everyone cheered as the bear kept on swinging TeruTeru’s arm in its jaw.
◊ That one time Hajime made Mikan cry, one of your lizards had slipped off Mikan and bit his finger.
◊ “Not cool, Hajim-“ Nagito started, before glancing down on his bloody finger, “Oh shit, are you okay??”
◊ There’s always at least one of your animals stuck onto her just in case she gets picked on by Hiyoko or TeruTeru.
◊ They always have her back!
◊ If Hiyoko insulted Mikan for no good reason, the monkeys would pull her pigtails whilst the cats quickly ran to her dorm to shit inside it.
◊ Hiyoko stopped messing around with Mikan after that.
◊ Those times she trips and falls in very inconvenient positions, the animals cover her or scare everyone else away until you or someone trusted comes and helps.
◊ As the animals always have her back, she always has theirs.
◊ If someone tried to attack one of your animals, she’ll cover the animals and take the hit for them.
◊ Though before anyone could get hurt, your tiger had already pounced on the assaulter, tearing off their pants and watching as they ran away from the humiliation.
◊ If you’re busy healing one of the animals and can’t take care of the rest at the moment, Mikan will be your number #2 and she’ll help in any way she can!
◊ She remembers each animal’s feeding time to heart, never forgetting to feed them or give them water.
◊ She cherishes the animals almost as much as she cherishes you.
◊ She adores how kind you are to the animals and her, falling in love with your sweet personality.
◊ Mikan kind of becomes your wife and the animals being your shared children together.
◊ It’s really cute when you see the animals cuddle up to her while she pets them, it just makes you want to get on one knee.
◊ You are indefinitely thankful for her care, you’re sure you love her.
◊ Sooner or later, you two finally get together.
◊ All thanks to your animals actually, they did that classic nudge where you two kissed on accident.
◊ After you two get into a relationship, expect lots of cuddles.
◊ Correction, expect lots of cuddles with the animals.
◊ They regularly interrupt your quiet time with her by climbing in between and around the two of you, creating a safe and warm barrier.
◊ As you’re always caring for your many animals, you sometimes forget to take care of yourself, so she’d also make sure you were okay too.
◊ Since she was the ultimate nurse, she knew humans better and so she knew when you weren’t taking care of yourself.
◊ She would get concerned for you as you overworked yourself, therefore reminding you to take care of yourself-
◊ Before immediately apologizing for her worries, afraid you thought she was clingy.
◊ After assuring her you could never think that she was clingy, you promised her you’d take care of yourself, kissing her worried tears away.
◊ You’d do anything for Mikan, and she would do the same.
note; sorry if it’s a bit rushed!! i hope you enjoy anyways though, tysm for reading!
#mod chia#danganronpa imagines#danganronpa oneshot#danganronpa fluff#danganronpa#super danganronpa 2#super danganronpa goodbye despair#gundham tanaka#gundham x reader#gundham tanaka headcanons#gundham tanaka fluff#gundham tanaka angst#mikan tsumiki#mikan x reader#mikan headcanons#mikan tsumiki x reader#ultimate!reader#danganronpa headcanons#mikan fluff#kazuichi x reader#kazuichi souda#kazuichi headcanons#kazuichi souda x reader#kazuichi soda#sdr2 kazuichi
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oho Bet. Guy from The Croods x Gender Neutral Reader where they were childhood friends/neighbors and they meet again at the "new world". (instead of Guy and Eek falling for each other they become friends) Sorry if it's weird to read, it's 3:30 am.
Guy Crood X Reader – The New World
A/N – Writing this fic was the only way I ever found out that there’s a Croods sequel in the works.
Warnings – None.
Rating – T
You hid in the bushes, cautiously watching the family before you as they violently tore hunks of meat of a huge bird. The speed and ferocity with which they ate was sickening, not to mention the gristle and fat that dripped grotesquely down their fronts. You had thought that you would be safe in the New World, never suspecting that cavemen would also find the way to it, unevolved as they were. Only one of the females looked anything closer to the evolution that had taken place in your tribe generations ago, but you doubted her intelligence was any better than theirs.
You wondered whether you ought to kill them; you had tried to communicate with cavemen in the past and it never ended well. Then again, it might not even be possible to take on all six of them. You were sure that you could kill the Alpha male with your speed against his strength. The other male would probably die of a self-inflicted injury in the heat of combat; he certainly looked dim enough. The alpha’s mate would hopefully be preoccupied with the fate of her son. It was the last three that worried you. The elder might look frail but she had to be tough to have survived so long. The young girl was clearly fast and strong, a combination of her parent’s best traits. That left the worst one of all; the baby. You had seen her bite the head clean off a lizard only seconds ago; she was clearly the most dangerous member of the pack.
Regretfully, you decided to abandon any thought of fighting, as well as that area of the New World. Perhaps you could make your home elsewhere, with the hopes that the cavemen wouldn’t find you.
“Ugh, that was delicious,” The alpha-male belched.
You slung your bow over your shoulder, tiptoeing quietly away, only stopping when you heard the girl speak. “Hey… where’s the leg I saved for Guy?”
‘Guy!’ Your breath hitched in your throat as you remembered your childhood friend. It couldn’t be him, could it? Was Guy a common name nowadays? The Guy you knew was as afraid of cavemen as you were. He wouldn’t travel with them, right?
On the slim chance that it was your Guy that the cavemen knew, you decided to stay and wait for him to come back to the pack. Coating yourself in mud to camouflage yourself and hide your scent, you hunkered down, clutching your bow tightly in case a fight should occur.
You continued observing the family, bemused when a fight broke out over who had eaten the last bird leg. You soon learnt that their names were Grug, Ugga, Eep, Sandy, Thunk and Gran, and together they were the Croods. Should a confrontation arise, their names might come in useful to diffuse the situation.
As the night drifted on and the Croods occupied themselves with stories for Sandy, you thought back, losing yourself in memories of when you and Guy were children.
“Help.” A sniffly voice on the verge of crying called from the bottom of a steep slope.
You poked your head over the edge, finding the new boy, whose family had just moved into the cave next door to yours.
“Hey,” Guy said upon seeing you. “Please, help me.”
You giggled upon seeing him fail to scale the shale wall, trying to reach you.
“You’re not supposed to play there, new boy,” You grinned.
“Okay, I won’t ever again. Now, get me out of here.”
“What’s your name?”
Guy stared up at you exasperatedly, “Come on, get me out.”
“I will, if you tell me your name.”
“It’s Guy.”
“Hi Guy, I’m (Y/N).”
“That’s not a name.”
“Neither is Guy,” You pouted.
“Yes it is, and you promised to help me if I told you, so there.”
“Uh huh,” You replied non-committedly, looking around for anything that might aid Guy. You lowered a long, withered stick down into the pit for him to grab hold of. Gratefully, he began climbing it, trying his best to be quick.
“You’re heavy,” You whined. “Hurry up before I drop you.”
Guy did his best to speed up, but with no footholds in the shale, he had only his arms to work with.
“How old are you?” You grunted through gritted teeth.
“Seven,” Guy groaned.
“No way. I’m seven and I’m not nearly as heavy as you are. You must be…” You paused, trying to think of the highest number you knew, “Twelve.”
“I’m not twelve! I’m seven, like you,” Guy insisted, finally reaching the top and dragging himself out.
You let him catch his breath before asking, “Now what?”
“I’ve gotta go home or my parents will worry. Are you coming?”
“I guess.”
With that, the two of you walked back to your adjacent caves within the tribe, talking the entire way back. Afterwards, the two of you became fast friends. Growing up together, Guy always shared his best ideas with you; his family seemed to be full of great thinkers. In return, you taught him the tribe’s way of hunting, camouflage, and how to mentally map out the terrain. You asked him once why he hadn’t learnt such important things from his old tribe, only to find out that he and his parents had been loners living in the wilderness until they came across your tribe.
In your early teenage years, Guy invented puppet shows, explaining the concept to you so the two of you could tell a story at the nightly gathering.
You giggled as you made a tiny old woman puppet on your hand bow. “The tribe will love this.”
“Yeah… The tribe will,” Guy said, thinking of how he had invented the puppets as a way to get closer to you than he normally would.
That night was one of merriment and wonder for the entire tribe. While you kept peeking around the boulder that acted as a stage to enjoy the audience’s reactions, Guy was watching you, preparing to ask you out before some other, braver tribesman did. After the show, when everyone was preparing to sleep, Guy finally plucked up the courage to ask you out, an action that led to what was simultaneously the best and worst night of your lives.
“You what?” You asked, trying to make sense of the rushed invitation Guy asked moments prior.
“Sometime, I mean, anytime you’re free, I was wondering if you uh, might want to go out with me,” Guy said slowly.
A grin spread across your face, “We could go now.”
“Now?! But it’s night time. There’s- There’s no light.”
“We’ll take torches.”
Uncertain about going, yet unwilling to lose his chance with you, Guy borrowed two torches from the communal fire pit. The two of you walked far beyond the edge of the tribe, into the wilderness where you could be alone together.
When the two of you reached the cliff, the two of you sat with your legs hanging over the edge. In a comfortable silence, bathed in moonlight you gazed up at the stars. Guy kept his eyes on you, smiling boyishly.
“(Y/N),” Guy murmured, drawing your gaze to his face.
Instead of speaking, he leaned forwards. You mirrored his action, relishing the way your foreheads touched, then your noses. Everything felt so intimate under the moon’s watchful gaze. Any second now and your lips would meet his, or at least they would have, had the ground not started shaking. The two of you jumped up, backing away from the edge of the cliff.
“What’s going on?” You gasped.
“I don’t know. I-” Guy was interrupted by the distant screams that echoed through the previously peaceful night air.
“THE TRIBE!” You cried out.
You broke into a run with Guy close behind you, each of you struggling to keep your balance on the unstable ground. Trees began uprooting themselves as large fissures opened in the earth below.
You were nearing the screaming tribe when Guy roared, “(Y/N), LOOK OUT!”
He had warned you just in time for you to leap out of the way of a newly formed chasm that swallowed the earth where you were standing only moments before. Guy morosely called your name, painfully aware that the two of you were now separated.
“Don’t worry about me,” You called back. “Get back home, I’ll find another way to get there, I promise.”
Guy nodded assent and ran towards the tribe just in time to watch his family slowly die in tar and hear their last goodbyes. You, on the other hand, never got to keep your promise. The new terrain provided no way back to the only home you had ever known, and eventually you were forced to flee as fire, lava, and tar pursued you.
In the years of isolation that followed, whilst searching for a place safe from The End, you often thought of Guy, hoping that he had survived that terrible night. Now, you had been provided a chance to see if it was your Guy travelling with these Croods. You desperately hoped it was him, so you could finally know that your friend was safe, and maybe even put an end to the solitary life that fate had forced upon you.
The rancid smell of bog water intermingled with wet fur drew you out of your reverie. Suddenly on edge about a possible animal attack, you squatted into a fighting stance and readied your bow. A large carnivorous cat pounced through the surrounding foliage, launching itself at Grug. You prepared yourself to watch a bloody massacre that would lead to the Croods’ demise, but instead found yourself watching the creature affectionately groom Grug, purring the entire time.
Soon enough, more animals followed, one for each Crood so it seemed. You scowled, thinking that perhaps Guy was the name of Eep’s pet, but your expression quickly transformed into one of radiant joy as a man followed the animals. He was older, his hair longer, and there was some kind of odd creature hugging his waist, but there was no mistaking it; that was your Guy.
“Next time, it’s Thunk’s turn to walk the pets,” Guy said bemusedly. “There’s just no keeping them out of that stagnant water.”
Shouldering your bow, you wasted no time in getting up. You were still afraid of the cavemen, but if worst came to worst, you could always grab Guy and run.
“Uh hi, room for one more?” You asked awkwardly.
You immediately began to regret your choice not to get Guy alone as you were grabbed by several pairs of hands.
“WHO ARE YOU?” Eep demanded, pulling you in one direction.
“EEP, I’LL ASK THE QUESTIONS,” Grug reminded her, pulling you in the opposite direction. “WHO ARE YOU?”
“Can we all ask?” Thunk grinned. “Who are you?”
“Sweetie, this isn’t a game,” Ugga warned Thunk. “Hold onto Sandy before she eats the intruder.”
“I SAY WE RELEASE THE BABY,” Gran cackled wickedly.
Throughout the interaction, Guy had been entirely too shocked to say anything, but he finally stepped in, pushing himself between you and the Croods.
“Everyone, wait. This is (Y/N), the two of us grew up together. We- We know each-other.”
Reluctantly, Grug let you go, but Eep’s grip only tightened and you were faced with a barrage of ecstatic questions. “You knew Guy? What was it like growing up? Do you have ideas too? Do you make fire? How well do you know him? What’s the curvy string stick on your back for? Do you have a pet too? Were you being chased by The End? How did you find your way here? What do you-”
“Eep,” Ugga said quietly. “I think that Guy may want some time to catch up with his old friend.”
Eep fell silent, looking up at Guy, finding an expression of sadness and awe written on his face. “Oh, right, yeah. We’ll just leave you too it. Uh… C’mon Croods, let’s go for another pet walk.”
All of the group left except Gran who took a seat, waiting for the show to start. Grug quickly came back and put her over his shoulder; she grumbled cantankerously as he carried her away.
“So…” You said awkwardly, unaccustomed to talking to others after so long alone.
“So…” Guy parroted, having been caught completely off-guard.
“Cavemen?”
“Yeah,” Guy laughed nervously. “But they’re good ones.”
“And…our tribe?” You asked, hoping that Guy wasn’t the only one who had made it out.
He shook his head, “Gone. We’re all that’s left.”
“Oh…”
“(Y/N), I never stopped looking for you. I always hoped… I mean- and now you’re here and I don’t know what to say.”
“I know what you mean. I kept hoping if I travelled far enough, I would find you and now I have. So much has changed, where do we even begin?”
“Well… I suppose we could begin where we left off,” Guy said thoughtfully. “We tell each other everything that’s happened, no matter how long it takes and we learn who we’ve both become.”
Guy sat down on a log, offering you the space next to him. You sat down tentatively,
“Okay,” You said quietly. “That sounds good. You go first. Tell me your story Guy.”
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#Guy Crood#Guy Crood X Reader#the croods#dreamworks#grug#uga#thunk#eep#gran#sandy#fanfiction#fanfic#reader#reader insert#the new world#Anonymous
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Twigkit And Violetkit Clan-Swap AU
I'm so glad I recently reread AVoS for one of my recent rambling discussion posts cause having the memories fresh in my mind works great
Especially since I'm already forgetting the second half of AVoS already dfska
Also, I don't go into detail about the big plot points, but they still do happen. This is more just about the changes the sisters go through.
And I kind of ignored the 'our mom is dead' plot now that I've finished it dfskjahfd
idk why I forgot about that point
So when the choice is made between Violetkit and Twigkit, Rowanstar decides that Twigkit is the best option, as her smaller size would make her more sneaky
Twigkit is taken away and Violetkit screams and cries and has to be held back by Alderpaw to stop her from chasing after Twigkit
Over in ThunderClan, Violetkit isolates herself, despite the best attempts to comfort and console her to the point she's attached to Alderpaw every moment he's in the camp. She doesn't want to play, she just wants her sister.
Alderpaw does his best to be there for Violetkit, but he feels as if his attempts aren't working, as trying to get her to open up is hard.
Luck turns on his side as Honeykit seems determined to be Violetkit's friend and she seems patient as Violetkit struggles to open up.
Over in ShadowClan, Twigkit is trying her best to make friends, despite Pinenose being disinterested in raising her and Needlepaw wanting nothing to do with a clingy kit.
Twigkit is constantly hurt at being left out and Puddlekit seems to be the only one okay with spending time with her. The two are shaky friends still, though, as his littermates pick on Twigkit and he's not a very bold kit to stand up against them.
When Grassheart's kits are born, Twigkit is very wide-eyed and curious about this new life and she asks Grassheart a lot of questions, all of the answers making Twigkit curious about the kits, but still feeling strangely detached from the idea that kits happen
Twigkit appoints herself as a big sister figure to the kits, despite still being a kit herself, and she's more than willing to teach them everything she knows - which may not be much, but she's excited to have company that looks up to her.
She also is saddened when Puddlekit is made an apprentice early, as it makes it harder for the two to hang out
Alderpaw and Needlepaw have the kits meet up and Twigkit and Violetkit are happy to see each other. Twigkit asks Needlepaw if this means she's going home to her sister and Needlepaw has a visible negative reaction, but Alderpaw is the one to answer.
Alderpaw convinces Needlepaw to bond with Twigkit and Needlepaw agrees, though she isn't too thrilled, especially after Twigkit's question
Over in ThunderClan, Violetkit is finally getting along with the other kits, though she's still rather withdrawn and isn't as high-energy as the other kits. Still, she sticks close to Honeykit now and it gives Alderpaw some room to stretch his legs and know that Violetkit isn't alone.
Alderpaw is still worried, but Jayfeather is dismissive about it, stating some kits are just strange like that, but Alderpaw is worried that Violetkit isn't taking well to being apart from her sister
Violetkit, meanwhile, still thinks of her sister a lot, but is getting along great with the other kits and is slowly branching out to others.
When she gets too overwhelmed, though, she finds herself going over to Daisy a lot more, who comforts Violetkit and lets her lay and rest in silence for a bit.
She also talks to Daisy the most, about not being Clanborn and about missing cats and Daisy becomes one of Violetkit's biggest rocks that keep her grounded. Lilyheart still does her best when she can, but Violetkit is more bonded to Daisy.
Twigkit is dragged out of camp by Needlepaw, who also brings Sleekpaw. Twigkit has many questions and concerns but is silenced.
When Twigkit is introduced to Darktail's group, she's on edge and frightened of these cats, wanting nothing to do with them. When Sleekpaw and Needlepaw try to introduce her as a non-Clanborn kit, Twigkit tries to lie and is called out for it.
When approached by Darktail, the kit tries to run but Needlepaw stops her and scolds her. She explains to Twigkit that these cats are important, but Twigkit doesn't believe her. Still, she stays silent and obedient, sticking close to the apprentices.
When the time comes, Needlepaw borderline threatens Twigkit into silence and Twigkit agrees.
Violetkit isn't sure that she and her sister are special, as she hears whispers about it echo through the Clan. She wants to believe and Alderpaw and Daisy assure her that she is.
This brings little comfort as she worries if ShadowClan thinks her sister is special and how they're treating her.
Violetkit asks Alderpaw what makes her and Twigkit special and Alderpaw talks to her, that it's not just the prophecy, but the fact the two of them are survivors and that they'll grow to be great cats.
This helps a little, but not much
When Sparkpaw becomes Sparkpelt, Violetkit is confused on why Alderpaw looks disheartened but still goes over to comfort him, leaning against the medicine cat apprentice and letting out tiny purrs.
He accepts this as comfort and thanks her
When Twigkit is brought back to camp by Sleekpaw and Needlepaw, they're busted by Tawnypelt. When confronted, Twigkit runs to Tawnypelt and tells her what happened
Needlepaw is outraged, as is Sleekpaw
While the arguing in ShadowClan is going on, Twigkit stands by her conviction to tell, as she believes the reason she's special is because she's supposed to help ShadowClan and she's trying to trust what her gut says
But her gut starts to twist with worry as the fighting goes on and she's worried she's on the wrong side of this battle, though she does not believe Needlepaw and Sleekpaw are in the right
Birchpaw and Lionpaw, for the first time, seem willing to be on her side, as both of them agree that the other apprentices aren't in the right. This brings some comfort, but she's still worried, as she's trying to hard to figure out why she's special.
Needlepaw blames Twigkit for her getting in trouble and quietly claims to her that the kit owes her a huge favor for being a snitch.
Twigkit does not agree with this, but her guilt makes her feel differently and she isn't sure what to do
When Needlepaw demands Twigkit go tell Rain she won't be able to see him, Twigkit objects, stating she's just a kit and shouldn't go out alone
Needlepaw counters by saying that if it wasn't for Twigkit she wouldn't be barred from leaving camp
Twigkit winces in response and caves in, sneaking out of camp. Twigkit, however, hides for a portion of the night until she's found by Pinenose and Grassheart. The two scold her for causing so much worry and she once more tells them the truth on what happened.
Alderpaw tries to take Violetkit out to meet with her sister, but they are found by a ShadowClan patrol. Alderpaw lies and learns that Needlepaw and Twigkit are in trouble, cause Needlepaw snuck Twigkit out of camp.
Violetkit feels terribly guilty and Alderpaw assures her that it isn't her fault
Violetkit isn't sure about that
When they return back to camp, Violetkit slumps down in the nursey, feeling like it's her fault. Alderpaw tries again to comfort her, but to no luck.
Daisy takes over and assures the tom she has it from here and just quietly lays down with Violetkit, waiting for the kit to be ready to talk
Meanwhile, when confronted, Needlepaw tries to lie, but Twigkit is insistent. What doesn't help was Needlepaw already being in trouble for sneaking out of camp
Needlepaw is even more furious and threatens to leave
Rowanstar openly invites her to leave
More apprentices side with Needlepaw and he lets them go. Twigkit is in shock. Needlepaw makes a scolding remark on how ShadowClan can keep their 'non-special kit', referring to Twigkit, and Twigkit is hurt.
She wants to believe she's special..
Twigkit becomes Twigpaw and is apprenticed to Tigerheart. Violetkit becomes Violetpaw and she's apprenticed to Stormcloud.
Stormcloud is a kind and understanding mentor and he makes it clear from the start that there are things he's still learning about aspects of Clan life and mentoring is a big one.
He is open about his former life outside the Clan and this makes Violetpaw look up to him, seeing his life as a possible future for her own - a proud warrior who came from non-Clan origins, special or not.
Violetpaw also has been sneaking off to spend time with her biological sister, Twigpaw, and the two talk often about what's going on.
During one of these short meetings, the duo is attacked and they're almost snagged away by who is revealed to be Needletail and Sleekwhisker. The two she-cats are thankfully chased off by a ThunderClan patrol [consisting of Stormcloud, Squirrelflight, Dovewing, and Lionblaze], who scolds the two for being alone.
They are notably not scolded for seeing each other, but are warned they got lucky that is wasn't a different patrol or a ShadowClan patrol.
Stormcloud takes Violetpaw to the side and offers to look out for her if she ever goes off to see her sister, but she has to be honest with him.
She promises
Twigpaw hurries home, grabbing a hidden away lizard as she does so.
Tigerheart isn't impressed with it, but he doesn't scold her. He does express he isn't happy with her hunt and she's aware he suspects something, but he makes no comments about it
They return to camp as Leafpool prepares to leave, as Puddleshine is a full medicine cat now, despite his young age. Twigpaw is sad to see her go and grabs some gifts from her nest for Leafpool to bring to Violetpaw - a cluster of soft, fluffy feathers and a shiny rock she had found while out exploring
Leafpool agrees to take them to Violetpaw and Twigpaw is happy at the news. Tigerheart looks like he wants to pass a message, but doesn't.
Only a couple days later a strange illness starts popping up and Twigpaw is quick to ask if Leafpool is going to come back. This isn't met positively.
A patrol is sent to WindClan and returns with only bad news, as Onestar refuses to share herbs
The gathering passes with only more bad news
Violetpaw is growing worried for Twigpaw, especially as the illness spreads and she convinces Stormcloud to watch out for her as she goes to check on Twigpaw.
He agrees but becomes hesitant when they reach the border and she wants to cross it.
He warns her not to, but the thought of her sister being sick stresses her out
She sneaks in anyway just to bump into Twigpaw who had been sneaking out to make sure Violetpaw was okay and that the disease didn't spread into ThunderClan.
The two talk for only a moment before a small ShadowClan patrol, consisting only of Crowfrost, Dawnpelt, and Scorchfur.
Twigpaw is scolded and Violetpaw is taken as a hostage. Violetpaw doesn't like this and Twigpaw doesn't stop apologizing to her sister.
Dawnpelt assures no harm will come to Violetpaw, that they just want ThunderClan's help in getting the lungwort for their Clan.
Twigpaw feels terrible about this. Violetpaw is angry, but not towards her sister. She decides she hates ShadowClan and she wants to get Twigpaw away.
While together, Twigpaw is out helping around ShadowClan the best she can, which only makes Violetpaw more nervous, as she helps Puddleshine get water for the cats and bring him herbs when he's getting overwhelmed.
He's very thankful for Twigpaw and Twigpaw shines with the praise.
Violetpaw decides she doesn't think Puddleshine is being sincere, as she believes he wouldn't put her sister this close to sick cats if he was.
Twigpaw mentions how she doesn't like how certain things are normalized - like violet outbursts between apprentices - but she believes the reason she's special is that she's meant to help ShadowClan
Violetpaw doesn't buy this and it only makes her more upset
insert the "we're not special" audio
Things are awkward between the two sisters, even as Bramblestar and the patrol come in.
They demand Violetpaw back and scold the Clan for taking a young apprentice into a sick Clan when she could've fallen ill.
Violetpaw, for a brief moment almost doesn't say anything before trying to demand Twigpaw is taken back to ThunderClan with them
Bramblestar explains they can't do that and Violetpaw doesn't believe they can't just that they won't
She has to be basically dragged out
Some cats are upset and Crowfrost falls sick
With some help from the medicine cats coming together, the Clan gets lungwort, but not in time to save Kinkfur, Wasptail, and Crowfrost.
Tigerheart is the new deputy and Twigpaw is proud of her mentor
Cats are refusing to go to the gathering, despite Twigpaw's best attempts to try to talk to them. Tigerheart informs her that not everyone is reasonable.
She doesn't like this.
Darktail takes over ShadowClan.
She likes this even less.
She tries to leave with Rowanstar, Tawnypelt, and Tigerheart, but Darktail holds her back and doesn't allow her to leave. He says his cats have more use for a 'special' cat than them.
Twigpaw is scared
Violetpaw is still mad about what happened, but she's not mad at her sister anymore. She just wants to see her and apologize. Even if she doesn't believe they're special, she feels terrible about yelling at her, especially since she has few friends [granted due to her own withdrawn nature]
She becomes worried when only three ShadowClan cats arrive at the gathering and none of them are Twigpaw
Bramblestar takes in the wayward ShadowClan cats and Violetpaw is quick to ask them about Twigpaw. Tigerheart reluctantly informs her and she is even more angry at ShadowClan for not saving her.
After the gathering, Stormcloud personally helps her trespass to try to save Twigpaw and the two are caught. Violetpaw says she just wants to see her sister.
Rain and Needletail assure she will before chasing off Stormcloud, giving him some nasty injuries before dragging Violetpaw back to camp.
Violetpaw finds that she and Twigpaw are both prisoners now
The four Clans come together to try to fight The Kin, but it doesn't end well and Twigpaw and Violetpaw are still being held.
Darktail seems to know more about these sisters than he's letting on and keeps a close eye on them when he can. When he's not around, there's always another one of his cats close by.
Twigpaw apologizes for ever thinking they were special and Violetpaw stops her, apologizing for what she said.
Twigpaw admits she's scared and Violetpaw quietly admits she is, too
After a couple days, the two are allowed to roam camp, but are still being watched at all times. Violetpaw and Twigpaw try to help the elders and are quickly stopped and reprimanded for doing so.
They try again and are separated for the day as punishment.
He allows her to take a mouse to Puddleshine and while they're there, Rain approaches, wanting to talk to Darktail alone.
Twigpaw pretends to go, but stays behind, wanting to at least try to see what's going on and hoping for information on why Darktail wants to keep her and her sister
She gets no news and only witnesses Rain attempt to kill Darktail. Darktail then kills Rain.
Twigpaw is horrified and Darktail is very calm about the whole situation. He pats her head before sending her off, calling her special once again.
Twigpaw no longer wants to be considered or hear the word special.
She tells Violetpaw and Needletail what happen and Needletail is horrified. Before Twigpaw can say anything, she leads the two out of camp and asks her to repeat it one last time.
She does.
Violetpaw suggests hunting and they go hunting. Needletail seems to be questioning her loyalty, but not out loud.
Darktail brings in some kittypets; Zelda, Loki, and Max. They are made to hunt prey, eat it, and stay.
Darktail expresses to Twigpaw that he plans on turning these kittypets into useful fighters. Twigpaw doesn't feel too sure about this. Darktail makes an offhanded comment on how she's not much like 'him', but doesn't answer any questions, instead walking away and leaving her confused.
Violetpaw finds herself being led into a dream by what looks to be Alderpaw/heart. She follows him and he stands by her as they share a vision of a barn.
Violetpaw, not sure if this is real, asks him what that was about.
Alderheart believes it's about SkyClan.
She asks about SkyClan and he tells her what he can. He also reveals he suspects that whatever kin she may have besides her sister may be with them.
For the first time in her life, Violetpaw feels a strange determination.
She wakes up and Needletail notices something's up. She asks her about it and Violetpaw explains.
Needletail seems unsure but Violetpaw wants to try to find this barn and these cats.
Needletail 'accidentally' lets Violetpaw escape. Violetpaw runs for her life.
Violetpaw is in the middle of escaping when a pack of dogs spot her and chase her down. She manages to escape, but passes out after doing so.
The last thing she sees are twolegs.
Twigpaw is worried for Violetpaw, but Needletail has informed her of what's going on and what's happening.
Twigpaw, meanwhile, has been trying to at least make the kittypets comfortable, since they're forced to stay here. Loki and Zelda are the most thankful.
Twigpaw goes to rest, noticing Darktail is heading out another hunt for Violetpaw. This makes Twigpaw more worried, as she isn't sure if it's better for her to be found or not.
She is later woken up by Dawnpelt, who invites her to escape to ThunderClan.
Juniperclaw and Strikestone is there, too.
Twigpaw is nervous, as she isn't sure what will happen to them and she's not sure what will happen to the cats here, whom she has a lot of sympathy for. She tries to talk Dawnpelt out of it, but Dawnpelt seems set.
She goes back to sleep, but holds onto her worries for Dawnpelt and Dawnpelt's sons
When she wakes up, Darktail is ready to take over RiverClan. Twigpaw tries to protest, but Darktail won't hear any of it.
The takeover of RiverClan happens. The dead are left to rot and the wounded aren't allowed to get help. Max, Foxnose, Heronwing, Petalfur, Pinenose and Shadepelt died.
Twigpaw comforts Loki and Zelda.
While out with Raven and Needletail, they help sneak some ThunderClan cats in. Raven doesn't like this.
RiverClan prisoners aren't being fed and Twigpaw is being watched closely by The Kin to keep her from feeding them.
Darktail confronts Twigpaw about the herbs and Twigpaw tries to lie, but is called out for it. She is forced into telling the truth and when she does, she fears for Needletail's safety.
Needletail is placed with the prisoners and Darktail thanks Twigpaw for her cooperation.
Twigpaw starts working to gain Darktail's favor, using it as a shield so that she can help as many cats as possible. He seems none the wiser as she sneaks herbs and prey to Needletail and the RiverClan cats.
While out hunting, Twigpaw sneaks away from the patrol and manages to make her way to ThunderClan.
ThunderClan is relieved to see her and she asks about which cats made it. Sadly, not a lot have, as Dawnpelt was killed trying to escape.
She asks about Violetpaw.
There has been no sign of Violetpaw at all.
This makes Twigpaw super worried and she fears the worse.
She works with ThunderClan to make a plan to rescue all the prisoners and make an opening for cats to escape.
When she returns to camp, making sure to bring prey back with her, she waits until night and Zelda allows her to see the prisoners. She tells them all the plan and they're willing to worth with her.
Needletail is the least sure, but Twigpaw assures her that everything will be fine
Needletail still isn't sure
Twigpaw starts sneaking cats out, beginning with the wounded and the elders.
She meets up with ThunderClan and they safely bring the cats over.
They get Snowbird and her kits out next before deciding not to risk any more cats. They agree to meet up again three days later.
Before they leave, Alderheart gives Twigpaw some poppy seeds to put Darktail and his cats out cold after a suggestion from Tigerheart. Twigpaw tells Alderheart to let Tigerheart know she's doing her best for her Clan
Alderheart confirms that Tigerheart already knows. He also mentions how he, personally, is proud of her and Twigpaw beams with happiness.
All this time, Violetpaw has been with twolegs. She has been working on her escape plan and she's now making her way out. She hasn't forgotten her sister or Alderheart or the barn.
She is worried, however, for her kin
She does find the barn, but it has been abandoned. Unable to find any sort of scent, Violetpaw feels herself wanting to give up, as she doesn't believe she's able to do this.
Violetpaw ends up falling asleep and having a dream that tells her to follow the blood trail in the sky.
Violetpaw wakes up, confused, and hesitantly follows the instructions
She is surprised when she finds a Clan of cats, having been on the verge of being convinced that SkyClan didn't even exist
Violetpaw approaches them nervously, more scared than she had ever properly felt but SkyClan is very welcoming and they're excited to learn that she's from ThunderClan.
She talks to Hawkwing and Leafstar and they're not too fond of Darktail. She also learns that Hawkwing is, in fact, her father. He is reminded so much of her mother when he looks at her.
Violetpaw informs him he has another daughter, too. She's worried about Twigpaw. Hawkwing is now determined to do what is best for his daughters.
They start heading towards the lake territories together. As they walk, Violetpaw finds she feels very at home with these cats and it soothes her heart.
Twigpaw is preparing for what she's about to do and part of her feels guilty that she's doing this. But at the same time, she wants to save these cats.
She is caught and Darktail decides to drag out Needletail, Zelda, and Loki. He wants these cats to die to punish Twigpaw.
Darktail is going to drown them. He gives them the chance to live by killing Twigpaw. Needletail pretends to take it, but uses it as a chance to get Twigpaw to escape. Loki and Zelda manage to fight off the cats and start trying to escape with her while Needletail fights Darktail.
Zelda pushes Twigpaw along as Twig tries to turn around to save Needletail. Loki informs Twigpaw they can't save everyone and that they need to keep moving.
ThunderClan encounters them and they send Twigpaw to ThunderClan camp while they go rescue the prisoners, who at this point are fighting back.
Right before she reaches ThunderClan camp, Twigpaw and Violetpaw are reunited and Twigpaw almost breaks down as she pulls her sister close and starts crying, the reality of everything just kind of crashing down on her in that moment.
Violetpaw is very comforting and assures Twigpaw that it's going to be okay.
Hawkwing, curious by the name, asks if this is her sister. Violetpaw confirms. Hawkwing, ecstatic, introduces himself as Twigpaw's father.
Twigpaw welcomes the comfort of her father and explains to them what all is happening. They make it back to ThunderClan's camp and wait for the cats.
As StarClan confirms that SkyClan being there is okay, Hawkwing is trying to talk his daughters into moving to SkyClan with him.
Neither she-cat is sure about the idea right away
They make plans to take down Darktail and, of course, Onestar is being difficult.
As Twigpaw and Violetpaw join the patrol to talk to Onestar, they talk about the idea of moving. Twigpaw firmly believes there's a lot she still needs to do and she doesn't feel right leaving ShadowClan.
Violetpaw still doesn't like ShadowClan, but she understands, saying she's not sure about leaving her adopted ThunderClan siblings and Alderheart.
Darktail is attacking WindClan when they get there, he chooses to leave with a cryptic message to Onestar, and Onestar has all the leaders gather to talk about it.
Onestar then explains his relationship to Darktail when the leaders get there.
The five Clans come together and the final fight with Darktail happens, leading to the deaths of Onestar and Darktail in the lake.
Loki and Zelda are informed they're free to go home, but the two stick with Twigpaw for the time being, the cats wanting to make sure she's okay first. Loki and Zelda are very close to Twigpaw.
ShadowClan is going home and Twigpaw asks if she can stay with her sister for a moment and consider some things. Rowanstar isn't sure, but Tigerheart allows it.
Hawkwing tries ones again to convince his daughters to join SkyClan. They're still not sure about it.
There is a large debate in ThunderClan on what to do with SkyClan. Twigpaw defends her sister's choice and Violetpaw is starting to feel like she did moons ago when she didn't feel like she fully belonged.
In her eyes, SkyClan is seeming like a better option.
However, at the same time, she wants Twigpaw to come with her, as she doesn't want Twigpaw to go back to ShadowClan.
Tensions are high in ThunderClan camp with so many cats there. There's especially tension in ShadowClan and Twigpaw really wants to be helpful.
Adjusting in hard and Bramblestar is about to make Violetpaw a warrior when Violetpaw announces she's going to be moving in with SkyClan, who is in the process of making their new camp
Violetpaw has Twigpaw - and by extension, Zelda and Loki - help her help SkyClan. She's working hard on trying to talk Twigpaw into moving to SkyClan.
Twigpaw still isn't sure, but Zelda and Loki seem interested in SkyClan and she's close to the two of them.
And after this my memory of events are muddy
but what I have to follow up with is;
Violetpaw becomes Violetshine and of course gets with Tree when he comes into the picture [again, my memory isn't the best]
Twigpaw decides to stay in ShadowClan and upon her return she earns the warrior name Twigsong. She ends up in a polycule with Zelda and Loki, who are given permission to keep their old names.
Twigsong helps a lot with ShadowClan after Tigerheart leaves to find Dovewing and when Tigerheart returns as Tigerstar, he is very thankful and gives her Cinnamonpaw as her apprentice.
It's also implied he's considering her as another option for deputy if anything happens with Cloverfoot
When SkyClan is chased off, Twigsong, Tree, Zelda, and Loki come together to bring them back and it cements that Zelda and Loki want to stay and that they're very fond of Twigsong.
Violetshine still checks on ThunderClan often and is still close with her adopted sister, Honeyfur.
#au#twigbranch#violetshine#alderheart#warriors#warrior cats#sorry my memory gets bad after the first three books dkfjsah#its just#everything after is rather slow#and my only other memories is hating finleap#who is single in this#also mama daisy being there for sad kits#daisy my beloved
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someday it will fit just right
on ao3
In 2 years, Steve would spend his first night truly hungry. In 5 years, he would stand in a cold little cemetery and bury his mother. In 8 years, he would deliver food to the silent Barnes family as they sat shiva. In 11 years, he would go into a tiny metal box and come out a freak. In 14 years, he would die.
But on April 17th, 1931, Steve Rogers woke up to Sarah Rogers singing in her clear voice, thrilled to celebrate her only son’s 13th birthday.
He and Fiona stumbled out from behind the thick curtain that cut the little nook at the far side of the flat where he slept. There were boxty and eggs on the table, and Ma wasn’t even tired, because she had three days off all in a row. He was still young enough not to question the luck. He wasn’t aware that Sarah had begged and traded with the other nurses to get the days, promising to work shifts no one wanted, knowing it would hurt their purse at the end of the month and doing it anyway to make her boy happy.
“Stiofán,” she greeted him, and Steve smiled. She only called him by his Irish name when she was in the best moods, and as he got older and the trouble he got up to got more bloody, that name was used less and less.
Fiona always slept as a cougar, because her furry bulk was the best thing to keep him warm in their drafty flat, but she usually changed before they even got out of bed. Big cats might be good for keeping little boys with dicky lungs, but they weren’t so good for navigating the tight space of the Rogers’s home. She didn’t change this morning, however.
Steve sent her a frown, even as he sidestepped her to get to the table.
Aodhan, perched on a rickety wooden chair to Sarah’s left, watched the pair with his intelligent brown eyes.
“How’s my wee man?” Sarah asked when Steve had sat. Fiona came to rest next to him, her big head almost as high as his. “Any big plans for today?”
Steve blushed. “Bucky and I were gonna go to the park,” he answered. But they’d planned that ages ago, before Ma had gotten the days off. And they were really only going because Bucky had heard from Teddy Russo that Theresa and Dot Bianchi would be there with their older sister Valentina. Bucky was absolutely dizzy for just about every girl in the Bianchi family.
To be honest, Bucky was dizzy for all the girls. He was 14 this year, and apparently, his Uncle Isaac had told Bucky that that was the age that “everything started to make sense” with girls. Whatever in the Sam-Hell that meant.
“We don’t have to, though,” Steve said. And he meant it. Spending a few hours watching Bucky watching dames didn’t sound like any fun, and it was his birthday, so if he told Bucky he wanted to do something else he wouldn’t be sore at him. “Bucky could just bring the girls over and we could play games or something.”
Even if Steve didn’t think spending his 13th birthday with Bucky’s little sisters was the best way to celebrate he wouldn’t want to exclude them. Bucky hated dragging Becca and Judy and Rachel along when they went places, but Steve thought the girls were just swell. He’d never had a sister or a brother, and never would most likely, so the novelty was nice.
Steve’s Ma just smiled. “No, no. You and Bucky should go. Bein’ thirteen is important, a leanbh . Before we know it you’ll be old and won’t get to spend all your time with Bucky Barnes.”
Steve wrinkled his nose. “Bucky and me’ll always spend time together, Ma,” he promised. “We’re friends forever.”
What was meant to be a reassurance, however, seemed to kill his Ma’s grin. She sent him a soft, sad look before tucking into breakfast. “I hope so, Stiofán. But don’t think you won’t get old.”
“I’m only thirteen, Ma!” Steve protested. Fiona leaned her head against his side sympathetically, and the weight of her sent him listing to the side for a moment.
“Fi, stoppit!” he giggled. “Why’re you so big?”
Fiona, looking contrite, seemed to shiver in her skin like she always did when she was trying to change shape. But instead of bursting into the air as a pigeon, or scurrying up his arm as a squirrel, she remained solidly feline and solidly big. Steve frowned, tipping his head forward to peer at her.
Aodhan and Ma both laughed. Steve turned a sharp, worried look to his mother.
“What?” he asked. Turning back, he said, “Fi, what’s goin’ on?”
“Oh, a leanbh ,” Ma breathed. “What did I say?”
Fiona giggled. “I can’t! Stevie!”
It took Steve a bit too long to understand the situation, but when he did he turned an incredulous stare on Fiona. “You settled so big ,” he laughed.
“Bit inconvenient,” Aodhan muttered behind his shaggy russet mustache, but he was grinning his doggy grin, as overjoyed as Sarah was.
“The size of a daemon doesn’t depend on the size of the person,” Ma reminded him. Steve knew that. He knew that Mr. Tonks, hulking as he was, had a little rabbit daemon, and everyone in the world knew that Marlene Dietrich’s daemon was a honking big bear, something the newspapers always thought was real funny.
“Boys at school are gonna have a field day,” Steve told her anyway. Nobody but Bucky seemed to understand why Steve walked around with a mountain lion for a daemon most of the time. Now that she’d settled, he could just imagine how they’d tease.
“The boys at school are silly little idiots,” Aodhan grumbled.
That sent Fiona and Steve into a fit of giggles that carried them through breakfast.
***
He’d been right about the boys at school.
When words got around that Steve’s daemon had settled, Tommy Wies came over to him at lunch as asked him if he thought it was funny that his daemon was four times the size of him.
Miriam, lounging at Bucky’s feet as a german shepherd, snarled at him, and Tommy laughed it off but he didn’t say another word to Steve all day. Unfortunately, Bucky couldn’t be around forever, and after last period, when Steve was gathering his papers from arithmetic, Bobby and Tony Gottardo ambled over.
The three of them exchanged some words, and it all ended with Bucky finding Steve getting his lights knocked out of him in front of the school. Fiona was snapping and yowling at the Gottardo’s daemons, and Bucky had to wade in and break the fight up with a solid-looking kick to Tony’s keister.
“God, some of these eye-talians really are dumb,” Bucky huffed after the boys had beat feet down the sidewalk. “How many times I gotta lay them out flat before they leave well enough alone?”
Steve sent Bucky a dark look. “You didn’t lay anyone out, Buck. Tony and Bobby are just babies.”
Bucky scoffed. “Maybe not that time, but last time, I made Bobby bleed so bad I just about called a doctor so’s I didn’t have to go on the lam.”
Fiona snorted. “You did no such thing,” she told him imperiously.
Miriam perked up. “If you asked Bobby, he just about got murdered in that fight.”
The four of them ambled their way back home, About halfway to Bucky’s flat, where they were stashing their school stuff and cleaning up before heading over to the park-Steve couldn’t very well go home now, not with a bloody nose-Miriam turned to Steve and Fiona and eyed them.
“What’s it like?” she asked.
It was crystal what she was asking. Miriam, even though Bucky was a year older, still hadn’t settled.
Fiona shrugged her big furry shoulders. “Boring, but nice. Feels right, like a pair of shoes that I’ve had few ages, so they fit real good. But I think I’ll miss flying.”
“Shoulda settled as a big bird,” Bucky laughed. “A bald eagle, or something. Or a hawk, to go with that big nose.”
Steve shoved at Bucky playfully. “Well, then Miriam should settle as a pig, to go with your nose.”
Bucky, vainer than Steve by a mile, reeled back, patting at his nose like he was checking that it was still as perfect as ever. He scowled when that sent Steve laughing.
“Fi shoulda been an elephant, to match your ears!”
“Miriam could settle as a beaver so you could have matching buck teeth,” Steve shot back, still laughing.
Bucky huffed, but Steve knew he wasn’t that sore.
They spent the rest of the walk joking and fooling around, and when they barrelled into the Barnes flat, Bucky had Steve under his arm, mussing up his hair with his knuckles.
Mrs. Barnes started fussing as soon as she saw Steve’s face, but luckily she didn’t threaten to tell his Ma, trusting that Steve wouldn’t hide it from her. She did make him sit at the dining room table, though, and allow her to clean him up a little. She didn’t have his Ma’s practice at nursing, but she’d raised Bucky, and the frequency with which her son was being pulled into scraps meant she was no slouch. Amos chittered the entire time, scolding them all for fighting just like he always did. The boys and their daemons ignored him, as they always did.
“The only thing I have to give you for your birthday is some advice, Steven,” Mrs. Barnes said lightly. “Stay out of trouble!”
Steve offered her a beatific smile, the smile he offered to teachers and shopkeepers and Mrs. Barnes whenever he was trying to pretend he wasn’t an absolute scoundrel. It drove Bucky up the walls; he called it his saintly smirk. “I try, Mrs. Barnes. Trouble just always seems to find me!”
Mrs. Barnes and Amos hmmphed in unison, and Bucky snorted.
“Bucky, I expect you back home in time for supper. It might be Steven’s birthday, but you still have school tomorrow.”
“Yes, Ma,” Bucky and Steve chorused. She scowled and shooed them out of the house.
Steve shook his head. “She didn’t even notice Fiona’s settled,” he scoffed. “Guess Steve Rogers walking around with a puma for a daemon is just common sense to her.”
“Sure it is, pal,” Bucky drawled easily. “You may be short, but you’re just about the loudest guy I know. You’re bigger inside than out, is all. You ain’t no mouse.”
“What do you think you’ll settle as?” Fiona asked Miriam, who’d taken Fiona’s new size as an opportunity to be lazy, and shifted into a strange little lizard, riding on her back. She had the air of a haughty little queen that way, and Steve couldn’t help but smile at the smug little lizard smile she was sporting.
Miriam was quiet for a moment as she and Bucky shared a thoughtful look.
“A dog, probably,” Bucky answered first. “Most folks have dog daemons.”
Fiona shook her head. “You’re not most.”
Steve blushed a little at that. Bucky wasn’t most folks. Bucky was brave and handsome and kind and strong. Bucky talked a big game about how Steve was bigger on the inside, but honestly, Steve thought Bucky’s beautiful outside matched his insides. It was no wonder that all the girls at school had started taking real long looks at Steve’s best friend. There was something about the air around Bucky when he got real excited about a new song. When he laughed it was like his whole face opened up and you could see the damn sun shining out his eyes.
Miriam would settle as something even grander than a mountain lion. She’d be a real noble bird, maybe, because of Bucky’s sharp eyes, or a peacock cause of how nice his face was. Or maybe a wolf, like James Connolly had had.
“A horse, maybe,” Miriam said.
It was funny, because Steve couldn’t see that at all. Miriam had never been a horse in her life. Hell, none of them had ever seen a horse in their lives. But Steve was picturing Bucky astride a huge destrier, dressed like a knight, and it made him laugh so hard he almost gave himself an asthma attack. “You are a real horse’s ass,” he gasped.
“Maybe I’ll be something real strange,” Bucky said, and he was still smiling, but it looked pained. “Something odd, that’ll scare off anyone tryin’ to give us a hard time.”
Miriam shivered, shifting rapidly. She was a spider first, fearsome and black, before she draped over Fiona’s back as a big brown snake. It was followed by a strange hairless cat, a blind and eerie bat. Finally, Miriam clambered to Fiona’s rump, a brown little thing with huge, luminous golden eyes. Her small triangle ears sat at the sides of her head like horns, and a long tail that curled over her chest.
Steve blinked. “What are you?” he asked. Miriam only stared up at him.
“So one in a book of daemons once. Like a monkey, sorta. Strange, right?” Bucky murmured.
“She’s beautiful, Buck,” Steve assured him. “Very beautiful.”
Bucky shrugged and picked up his pace like he was eager to see the Bianchi sisters. Like the discussion was unimportant.
Steve felt distinctly that he’d missed something in the exchange, and Bucky was disappointed in him.
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Yoooo okay I GOTTA ask about Witch Adam/Ronan, derek/stiles daemon au (!!!!), arranged marriage
no read mores! we flood the dash like men!
Witch (Adam/Ronan, 2k + words) [coincidentally, I never actually wrote anything between Adam and Ronan other than some dialogue around the prompt ‘What? I’m not a witch? Who told you that?’. So instead have what I wrote before I got to them: Adam meeting the women of 300 Fox Way]
The first thing he made sure to check was that there were no other witches in Pine Brook. He found a home that boasted psychics, but he didn't think they'd be actual witches. The home was old, lived in. Loved. It seemed normal aside from the porch full of plants. There was no over pouring of occult paraphernalia.
They could be.
Rolling back his shoulders and pushing up the sleeves of his shirt, he unlatched the worn gate and creaked his way up the stairs and across the porch. Before he could even knock, a woman with white hair appeared out of the darkness behind the screen door, smiling at him. It sent chills dancing up his spine.
"Magician, what brings you around?" She asked from within the confines of the house, giving him a faint smile.
Unsure of whether or not she was speaking to him, he glanced over his shoulder to make sure he was alone. When he managed to swing his eyes back to face her, she had opened the door and was looking up at him. He tried not to jump backwards.
"I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd swing by." She turned away into the house without waiting for him, disappearing into the dark. Hesitant, he let the door slap against the frame.
"Come along!" She cried from somewhere inside.
He grasped the handle and moved inside, careful not to let the screen door slam again. It was dark in the foyer, coats hanging on either side of the hall before the stairwell that led up one side and the hall that seemed to continue on forever ahead of him. The woman popped her head out of a doorframe two thirds of the way down the hall before disappearing. He moved towards her at a brisk pace, not wanting to hang around in the hall forever.
She had led him into the kitchen where two other women were hip to hip at the stove making something. The kitchen opened up into a dining room as well with a very large table pressed up against the near wall of windows. The woman he had followed was sitting at the table, nodding to the space in front of her. Unsure of what to do, he watched the ladies backs as they moved about on his way to the table. They were somewhat behind him and to the side as he sat down.
When he turned to face the woman, she had leaned across the table and was staring very intently at him. He gave her a nervous smile, trying not to be rude.
"The Magician has come by to say hello. He also wanted to see how witchy we were."
He stilled, blood running cold. He sure as fuck hoped he didn't just insult an entire coven of witches. The clatter and noise at the stove stopped as the two women found their way to the empty side of the table next to him and the woman opposite him. He swallowed thickly, looking up at them.
"Ladies, I-" He began, before the shorter woman stopped him.
"Sugar, we're as witch as it gets. I don't want you causin' no trouble, y'here me?" He nodded quickly. "I need a 'yes, ma'am,' yu' understood?" Her eyebrows lifted in response to her question.
"Yes, ma'am. I understand."
She nodded once, turning back to the stove, throwing out a, "Good."
The other woman continued to stand there, arms crossed over her chest. Evaluating him? Reading his soul? Intimidating him? He had no clue, but he felt like a lizard under the watchful gaze of a cat. Any wrong move could be the end of him and no one would be the wiser.
"I want you to listen real close to me, young man. I don't want no tomfoolery going on in this town. You keep yourself clean and you keep yourself out of our affairs. I don't wanna catch you round this street again." She stared at him some more. It felt like she wasn't through. He didn't want to try to 'yes ma'am' her before she was through. "And keep that ruckus /down/." She emphasized as she too moved back to the stove.
He felt cool hands against his, turning his attention to the first woman. She carefully moved his palms upwards, dragging her nails lightly over the lines. Carefully placing them on the table cloth, she moved away and disappeared into the darkness of the hall. He looked at the backs of the other women, unsure of what to do. He felt very out of his element here. More so than usual.
He didn't have to wait long before she came back. She placed a small vial stuffed full of herbs on a long loop of leather into his palms. She carefully curled his hands over it and patted them.
"To keep the ruckus down."
"Mom, where's-" A loud voice entered the kitchen before it stopped. He turned to look. There was a wild girl standing in the doorway, painted nails digging into the wood as she eyed him. He was in a house full of lionesses, sharp teeth and poisoned words. He quickly turned his gaze away, placing it back on the table in front of him.
"Come along, little magician." The woman took one of his hands and led him past the girl in the doorframe and down the hall of coats to the front door.
She smiled and waved him goodbye before disappearing in the blink of an eye. As he stood there, confused, on the front porch, he could hear the loud voices of the women inside. He didn't know how to feel. He stumbled his way off the porch and through the gate, eyeing the 'psychics' sign in the yard.
Derek/Stiles daemon au (2 versions, mostly bullet point notes)
Version 1: de-aged + daemon. I think it was set post? season 1? pre? season 2? Some sort of shenanigans is going on with some monster of the week. Derek and his wolf familiar, plus alive Hale family and alive teen pack, end up finding de-aged Stiles and his de-aged hyena familiar near their property line. Derek’s stuck on babysitting duty while they try to figure out why the Sheriff’s kid is an even tinier kid. Derek having to awkwardly walk around Stiles’s questions about where his mom is at and why she can’t come pick him up. Scott and his familiar somehow get thrown into the mix in which Scott is Very Upset at having to find out from the rest of teen Hale pack that his best friend is now tiny!best friend.
This version had Derek being able to merge? with his daemon when he shifted into a werewolf. Have no clue if I planned to have the rest of the Hales and werewolves be able to do the same thing. 5+ years away from a 2am fic idea.
Version 2: daemon + adults/college. Canon divergent somewhere around season 2/3a? or maybe even season 1 before Scott and Stiles are on Hale property. Again, some sort of shenanigans/monster of the week. Stiles and Derek are both at the gym when their familiars get into a fight, spooking Stiles and causing him to leave the gym. On his way home he thinks he’s being followed and is run off the road/kidnapped. My notes become less clear here: either Derek is also kidnapped at some point and the two bicker their way out confinement and to safety or Derek and pack are there to save one of their pack members and Derek ends up saving Stiles, too.
Arranged Marriage (tbh i spent like seven or eight hours just absolutely writing like a mad man to get this out of my head and into a notepad. and once it was there i promptly forgot it all. had to reread it before i could summarize lol)
With the kingdom on the brink of war with neighboring nations, the king reaches out to form alliances. He promises his children’s hands in marriage, but many of the other nations aren’t willing to have to wait for the children to be old enough to be useful, so the king promises the hands of other members of his court. Gweyir, son of a baron, is to be wed to the kingdom to the north--a secluded land and people, cut off by a snowy mountain pass that sometimes doesn’t clear until mid summer. He goes from training with the guard to trying to study a language and culture his kingdom doesn’t know much about. He doesn’t know the name of the man he’s to marry, or his station; Gweyir is very unsure about whether or not men can marry one another because he’s never seen it before and is panicking. When the time came, he left at dawn, without pomp and circumstance, on horseback with as much as he could fit into his saddlebags and one of the knights of the court as escort. The pass hadn’t melted enough and they nearly fell to their deaths multiple times, but they eventually made it days later, ill prepared for the frigid weather. From the border onwards, he could only understand a few words here and there from the people he spoke with. Having arrived at the castle, they held a feast and dance; he awkwardly fumbled his way through the whole thing. In the morning he and the knight were escorted by a page to his new estate and to the waiting wedding party.
Roughly scrubbed clean by angry grandmothers, dressed in very fine but plain clothes after many minutes waiting naked on the cold stones, he was left alone in a room with chairs and a table near a large window. The door opened a couple times and he heard lots of hushed arguing before it closed again. After what seemed like half the day, he was led into a large ballroom or long hall with music tinkling softly and a good gathering of people whispering. He stepped up next to the man, broad shouldered and well muscled like a brawler with hair beginning to gray. Halfway through whatever marriage ceremony they were in, they finally faced each other and the man immediately led him, the page, and a slew of other men through a door on the other side of the room where he was promptly interrogated about who he was and why he was here--first in their language and then in his own when it became obvious he didn’t really know the language. Much arguing follows before the man sends the page to request a meeting with the king.
They meet with the king. And the court. And with representatives from his own land after what seems like months because of the still half snowed in pass. And they are to wed. The alliance has already been made, signed, and soldiers and supplies shipped off to the front lines.
Many, many, many words later, the husband is being sent to lead a war party and the estate is to be left in Gweyir’s hands. He’s left with the keys, including a small ring of keys to the husbands’ rooms and other doors beyond that--of which he is to not go within. And he doesn’t because it’s a retelling and the butchered bodies of Bluebeard’s wives aren’t the secrets behind the locked doors, but hidden behind the faces of the people at court who know his history and wish ill to the husband.
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could I request the main 6 with a S/O that's really tiny but likes to be the big spoon? (i'm not at all being self-indulgent here)
self-indulgence is the name of the game, babey
🚀Main 6 + Jet Pack MC
jet pack = a big spoon who is smol (i’ve also heard the term “koala”)
Asra
Asra’s not exactly used to being “the tall one”; he’s pretty average, but most everyone he knows is bigger than him
He holds your hand everywhere you go so he doesn’t lose you in crowds
He’s chatty before bed, so he prefers to cuddle face-to-face - but when you’re done talking (and teasing) for the night, he’ll roll over so you can jet-pack him
Faust curls up in the crook of his arm so you’re a double big-spoon
His hair is the softest
It’s like putting your face into a cat’s tummy but curly and it smells like incense
Definitely the one to pull your leg up over his hip so you’re completely wrapped around him
Asra is a hot sleeper, so one of you ends up kicking off all the blankets and you both wake up a sweaty mess, but still tangled together
Julian
If you’re tiny and dating Julian, expect lots of pick-up-and-spin hugs
[Mandatory tangle-of-limbs Julian cuddling hc]
In all honesty, though, do you know how long he’s been waiting for someone to spoon him
This sad goth scarecrow has terrible circulation, and he soaks up your heat like a lizard on a rock
It takes him a long time to fall asleep even on his best days, but it’s easier for him to relax in your arms
He’ll clasp one of your hands over his chest and stroke it, kneading little circles into the back of your hand
He also doesn’t toss and turn as much when he has you snuggled up to his back
If he has a nightmare, or even a regular myoclonic twitch as he’s falling asleep, though, hold on tight
When you want to get up, but he wants a lazy morning, he’ll roll onto his back and squish you to keep you in bed
Nadia
Thinks it’s adorable you like to be the big spoon
Calls you “my little koala”, “cuddlebug”, anything else she can think of
She’s not much of a spooner herself; she prefers arm-in-arm, your head on her chest
But the way you wrap around her and nuzzle into her neck is so adorable, she can’t bring herself to ask for anything else
She loves pillow talk, though, so she’s always looking back at you
Hair in your mouth is inevitable. There’s nothing she can do about it. She’s very sorry
On the bright side, her hair smells a m a z i n g and it’s the silkiest thing ever
Insists she doesn’t snore, but she’s wrong
It’s not loud, but you can feel the vibrations through her pillow
And tease her about it at breakfast the next morning
Muriel
It doesn’t even faze him how small you are; everyone’s small, as far as he’s concerned
Unsurprisingly, he’s never been the little spoon before
And he loves it
Your weight on his back, arms cradling his head, make him feel so safe
Muriel snores like a boar in a badger den, and the rumbling of it in your chest lulls you to sleep like no other
Once, he did roll over on you accidentally, but he’s a pretty light sleeper, and the noise you made woke him up like that
He likes to get up early to putter around and feed the chickens
If you drag your feet getting out of bed, he’ll just carry you around on his back like a lil backpack while he does chores
Portia
Honestly, you’re not that much smaller than her
You might have to fight her for it
“I never get to be the big spoon either!”
Bickering over it turns into a little game you play every time the two of you cuddle, that usually ends in 1) tickle fight 2) making out 3) Portia surrendering or 4) all of the above
She’s a wiggly snuggler; she likes to pull you in tight, play with your hands, push her butt into you
Portia likes to cuddle even when you aren’t sleeping - sometimes the two of you bundle up and read together
Other times you bring her lunch on her break at the Palace and she sits in your lap while you both eat
Beware: being the big spoon means it’s your face Pepi tries to sleep on, so you often wake up with a hot, squirmy fur hat that peeps at you
Lucio
Since he’s never seen in less than two inches of heel, you can imagine he likes being the tall one
He loves getting things from high shelves for you, boosting you up so you can see at parades, picking you up and carrying you anywhere
You definitely expected him to have the same attitude about spooning, but he’s surprisingly nonchalant when you ask him to be the little spoon
Turns out he’s an absolute princess about it, and insists on you petting his hair
If you stop because you’re starting to fall asleep, he whines and nudges you ‘til you start up again
His left shoulder is always full of knots, and if you massage them out, he’ll fall asleep in less than a minute, guaranteed
Mercedes gets jealous and tries to burrow between the two of you
Careful about where your arms end up, because a sleeping Lucio drools like no other
So does Melchior, but he usually stays at the foot of the bed ☕
Requests Are Open | Ko-Fi | My AO3
#the arcana#the arcana game#the arcana imagine#the arcana main 6#the arcana game headcanons#asra the arcana#the arcana asra#asra the magician#asra alnazar#julian the arcana#the arcana julian#julian devorak#ilya devorak#nadia the arcana#the arcana nadia#nadia satrinava#countess nadia#the arcana muriel#muriel the arcana#portia the arcana#the arcana portia#portia devorak#pasha devorak#lucio the arcana#the arcana lucio#count lucio#lucio morgasson#the arcana x reader#the arcana mc#the arcana game mc
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Storybooks and Siren Suits Pt 1
The first part of an AU where Patsy's family return to England for the start of WW2 instead of staying in Singapore, and Patsy and her sister are evacuated to Pembrokeshire. Not primarily a Patsy/Delia relationship fic (they're children) but the plan is to continue the timeline far enough that it will get there eventually. The burn will be slower than boiling a swimming pool with a magnifying glass though...
Also on AO3 for those that prefer to read there.
‘Forty eight, forty nine, FIFTY ! Ready or not, here I come!’
As she spoke the words, Patsy turned another page in her book and read on, making no move to get up and search the room.
The story was at a particularly interesting part, with a giant Alice stuck inside the White Rabbit’s house, too big to get out the door but unable to make the enraged Rabbit outside understand. More animals joined the siege then, attempting to climb through the window or down the chimney to get at her, but being knocked back each time by one of Alice’s giant hands or feet. It was funny to read about her batting them away and launching Bill the lizard right into the air with her foot, but it was frustrating too, because if only they’d listen they’d realise that she wasn’t being deliberately naughty, she couldn’t come out.
The crowd outside were calling for the house to be burned down with poor Alice still stuck inside it, when finally Patsy managed to drag her attention back to the real world for long enough to call out:
‘Where could Grace be? Is she under the bed? Ah hah … no that’s just her shoe. Bother, I was sure I had her that time!’
There was a suppressed giggle from the next room, where Patsy knew perfectly well that her little sister was crouching behind their big doll’s house ( Patsy’s dolls’ house), her fingers pressed tight over her mouth in an effort to keep quiet.
She hadn’t actually seen her there, but it was the same place Grace had hidden every single time they played hide and seek for the last month, so it wasn’t hard to guess. She probably looked quite a lot like the giant Alice actually, with the top of her head on full display above the red painted roof and a foot or bit of elbow poking out around the edges of the walls; as if she too had grown too big for her house and was beginning to burst right out of it.
Grace still seemed to be blissfully unaware that hiding so she couldn’t see Patsy didn’t mean that she couldn’t be seen herself, or indeed that her sister might not be trying very hard to find her.
Not trying at all, really.
As long as Patsy called out every few minutes to make it sound as though she was looking, her sister wouldn’t notice that the game never seemed to end with actually being found. It couldn’t last forever of course, but for now, games of hide and seek offered a rare opportunity. Grace would be happy playing what she thought was a secret game with her sister’s prized possession, and Patsy would be free to do whatever she felt like, unencumbered by her demanding little sister.
She could draw a picture without having to risk the points of her colouring pencils by letting Grace scribble with them; or read an entire chapter of her book without having to fend off repeated requests to read ‘Orlando The Marmalade Cat’ aloud instead (‘because you’re my Marmalade sister Patsy!’); or even (best of all), have a chance to play her own small, secret game with Matilda, the tiny teddy that usually had to stay hidden in her pocket for her own safety.
Matilda was very definitely Patsy’s bear, but, like all Patsy’s favourite toys, Grace coveted her, and tried to take possession of her whenever she could. In most things Patsy tended to let her sister have her way simply to keep her quiet (and so avoid the wrath of grown ups for not ‘playing nicely’), but Matilda was different. She couldn’t hand her over. It would be like cutting off her own hand.
Grace would end up screaming and drumming her heels against the floor, while Patsy held Matilda safely out of reach above her head and waited for the storm to pass. But of course the noise would almost always bring a grown up running to investigate, and they would inevitably take Grace’s side, telling Patsy to let her sister have the teddy because she was younger, and wasn’t Patsy too old for silly teddies anyway? (no, she wasn’t. Not if it was Matilda).
Then she would have to look on in silent agony while Grace played triumphantly with her prize; afraid every minute that Matilda might be dropped down a drain, or that her sister would tear her little pinafore or unravel the stitches in her smile. None of these things had actually happened (yet), but it was safer to just keep Matilda out of sight unless she was alone.
It wasn’t that Patsy disliked playing with Grace, not really. She could be funny sometimes, and quite good fun for such a little girl - certainly more fun than being all on your own all the time. But the last few months had changed things.
When they lived in Singapore they’d had their nanny to help jolly Grace out of her tantrums, and Patsy had had lessons most of the time anyway. But Maud hadn’t come with them when they’d come to England, and ever since then Patsy had been expected to keep her sister entertained all day long, every day, without the respite of school or visits to friends houses or anything at all.
Of course Mama made sure they got up in the mornings, that they were dressed and fed, that they bathed and brushed their hair and teeth regularly; but the endless hours in between breakfast and lunch, and then lunch and supper, supper and bed, those were Patsy’s responsibility. She was expected to keep Grace happy and busy, but also quiet, tidy and well away from anywhere she might disturb the grownups of the house, and it was exhausting.
At eight, she felt both much too old and much too young for the task. Too old, because the kinds of little girl games that Grace wanted to play felt twee and silly to her now (let's be cats! You have to be Orlando because you have orange hair, and I’ll be Grace because that’s my name too!’). Too young because it was hard work, taking care of Grace all the time, and her sister didn’t always listen when she told her to do something, not even if she put her hands on her hips and went all cold and stern like Mama, or shouted like Daddy.
The only time she really got to herself, other than if Grace fell asleep first, was during the games of hide and seek.
‘Ah hah, she must be on top of the wardrobe! I see you up there you little monkey!’
‘Patience? What are you shouting about?’
Patsy jumped, instinctively dropping her book and leaping to her feet as if she had been caught stealing from the biscuit tin rather than reading quietly to herself in her bedroom.
‘I’m just playing hide and seek with Grace, Mama’.
Her mother’s gaze settled for a moment on the dropped book, but she seemed distracted, and she didn’t bother to point out that the chances of finding her sister in the pages of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ were slimmer even than the chances of such a small girl managing to climb to the top of their imposing victorian wardrobe.
‘Very good dear. Well, leave that now. I need to talk to you’.
Patsy’s heart gave a little stutter of foreboding. The only times Mama ever came to talk to her unexpectedly were to tell her off, or to deliver bad news.
In fact, the last time she had said ‘I need to talk to you’ in that same way, it had been to announce that they were moving back to England. She had said it as though it was a good thing - ‘we’ll be nearer to the family, and able to offer support to our homeland in her hour of need’, but it didn’t feel good.
Until Patsy was six they had moved around a lot, never staying in one place long enough for her to make proper friends. Sometimes it had felt like it wasn’t even long enough for her to unpack all her toys from their shipping crates before she had to pack them all away again and go to yet another new house.
Then they’d gone to Singapore.
There had been no more moves for nearly two years, and she had finally dared to believe they would be staying forever this time. She had had a best friend, and gone to school with other girls like her, and she had been happy.
But four months ago her mother had said ‘I need to talk to you’, and all of a sudden she had to leave everything behind - her friends, her pretty bedroom with the window seat and real four poster bed, her school where the teachers liked her and she had been about to be given a prize for her English composition, all gone in the time it took to say those six little words.
Worst of all, she had had to say goodbye to Maud. Her nanny had been the only grown up in the world who didn’t tell her she was too old for childish games or teddies, the one who had instead given her cuddles and told her stories and sometimes even taken her side over Grace’s when they argued.
And then she wasn’t anymore, just like that.
Maud was from England - she had come with them long ago when Patsy was small, and travelled around with their family ever since. But this time she hadn’t wanted to come. She had explained that there was no one left for her in England, and with the current troubles she’d feel safer where she was, though she hadn’t explained what she meant. She had just hugged Patsy and Grace very tight and said she’d miss them; only she couldn’t really have meant it - not as much as they’d miss her . If she had then she’d have come with them so they could all stay together and it wouldn’t matter if she didn’t have anyone else in England - they’d have had each other. She would never have gone off to be a nanny for their neighbours horrid little boy, as if she could replace them just like that.
Patsy dug her nails into her palms and focused on her mother, trying hard to ignore the way her heart was still thumping under her smocking as she thought back over everything she might have done to warrant a telling off.
‘It’s about your little… holiday’.
‘With aunt Florence and cousin Eleanor and uncle Peter?’
‘Yes yes, there’s no need to recite the whole list dear. Well, I’m afraid there’s been a change of plan. We’ve had word that poor Eleanor is very unwell. The doctor is hopeful that she will recover in time, but she’s going to be poorly for a while, and even when she’s better it’ll need to be quiet so that she can convalesce - do you know what that means?’
Patsy opened her mouth to say yes (although actually, she wasn’t absolutely certain), but Mama continued without waiting for an answer; though she had told Patsy often enough how rude it was not to let other people finish.
‘Well, it means you won’t be able to go and stay there anymore’.
‘But… but we have to go. What about school?��
She and Grace had been going to enroll in the smart girl’s school near where their aunt lived in rural Sussex - they already had the uniforms, pressed and carefully folded in their trunk, ready to be transported. Her mother might call it a holiday, but they were supposed to be staying with their aunt at least two terms, maybe for the whole school year; with Mama visiting as often as she could.
It was going to be Grace’s first time going to school, so the two of them had spent hours looking at the prospectus that aunt Florence had sent - Grace pouring over pictures of smiling girls in smart uniforms, large playing fields and airy classrooms; while Patsy read out the words (only stumbling a little at the longest ones) and tried to describe what school was like. She wanted Grace to be excited about going rather than scared, so she’d focused mostly on friends and playtime and learning how to read story books to yourself, rather than mentioning strict teachers and French verbs and sitting still or else.
‘You’ll go to a different school of course’.
Patsy bit her lip. She didn't want to go to a different school, and Grace definitely wouldn’t want to either. The school in Sussex looked quite nice, but not all schools were. There was a convent school that they had to walk past on the way to the park, and it was the scariest place ever. Probably scarier than a prison. It was a big ugly building with small windows and no playing field at all. It had high railings around it with nasty looking spikes at the top, and the nuns she occasionally glimpsed striding across the playground always seemed to be frowning, as if they were looking for someone to shout at or rap with a cane. And they had the uniform for the other school now, so they’d get in trouble right on the first day for wearing the wrong clothes, and all the other girls would know that they didn’t fit in just by looking at them.
‘Can’t we just stay at home? I… I’m sure I could teach Grace, and do my own lessons out of books as well, I know I could’.
‘Of course you can’t stay here Patience, don’t be absurd’.
‘But if we can’t go to aunt Florence then we’d be here after school anyway. I could look after us during the day too, easily. We’d be very quiet and not get in the way, truly’.
The words were accompanied by a sinking feeling as Patsy imagined how hard it would be, not only to have to look after Grace all day long, but to actually teach her lessons as well. She already often felt cross with her sister, and that was when they were just playing; it would be much worse trying to teach her to add and spell and recite. At least at school someone else would have done that part while she focused on her own classes, and they both could have made friends their own age instead of being stuck together all the time.
But they couldn’t go to the convent school, they just couldn’t . So she would manage somehow.
‘You won’t be here after school. I do wish you’d listen! You need to leave London. It will be too dangerous for children to stay here now War’s coming, you know that’.
Except Patsy didn’t know. Not really.
She had been listening as hard as she could ever since Mama had first told her they were leaving Singapore, but no one ever actually seemed to say what they meant . They hinted at things she didn’t understand, or started sentences without finishing them, or simply told her that it wasn’t a nice thing for little girls to ask about and sent her out of the room.
She did know that the grown ups acted very busy and very serious all the time now - that Daddy had signed up to be an officer in the army, and Mama was going to ‘do her part’ in London while Patsy and Grace went away to school (although even Mama didn’t seem to know what her part actually was ).
Patsy knew these things, but they didn’t feel real. It was like it was just a big game they were all playing for now, but would get bored of soon and go back to normal. They had to, because the idea of whole countries fighting each other didn’t seem like something that could ever really come true. The Wars had all happened years and years ago when Mama and Daddy had been children, or even longer ago in the proper olden days, when things had been different to how they were now. Wars belonged in history lessons and text books, not in real life.
But if, somehow, it really was going to happen, if there would be bombs and fighting right here in London - then why would it be dangerous for her and Grace, but safe for Mama? It didn’t make any sense, and Patsy longed to say so - to argue, maybe even shout that it wasn’t fair... Except you never argued with Mama (and never ever shouted at her), and she couldn’t think of any way to put all her worries into words that wouldn’t make Mama say she was being disrespectful.
‘What you’re going to do is exactly the same as all the other children in London. You’re being evacuated to the country, and a family there will look after you until it’s safe to come home’.
‘But we don’t have any other aunts, do we?’
‘It won’t be an aunt, that’s what I’m trying to tell you. It’ll be… well, the government is finding good homes for all the children who have to leave London’.
The government ? How could they possibly do that? The government didn’t know Patsy and Grace, and they didn’t know anyone else in the whole country - only Aunt Florence, and even that was only a tiny bit, from letters and a few hazy memories of long ago visits.
If they weren’t staying with an aunt and they weren’t staying here with Mama, then...
‘We have to go and live with a stranger ?’
The words wobbled as they came out no matter how hard Patsy tried to keep them straight, and her eyes felt a bit stingy, like she’d rubbed at them with salt on her hands. She could feel a shout building in her chest but she couldn't let it out, so it just kept building and building until there was no room left to breathe properly.
‘Don’t be such a baby Patience! I’d expect this from Grace, but not from you, you’re a big girl now. You’re what, nine years old? Ten?’
‘Eight’.
‘Well, quite old enough to go on a little train ride, there’s no need to make a fuss. I’ve spoken to Sister Bernard at the convent school and explained your situation. She’s agreed to take you in hand on the journey, so you can travel with their pupils, and she’ll make sure you’re placed with a suitable family. I don’t quite know how it works, but I expect she has something arranged already. They’ll meet you at the station and take you somewhere lovely I’m sure. Perhaps with a big garden, maybe even horses or a boating lake, you’ll like that won’t you?’
Patsy nodded uncertainly. She liked horses, and big gardens (the London house was big inside but hardly had any garden at all). She liked lakes and boats too, but she couldn’t quite believe that all these things would really come true. Even if they did, it would be in a strange place with a strange school and people they didn’t know even a little…
Her mother must have noticed her wavering because she sighed and gave her a little pat on the shoulder.
‘Come on now, straighten that spine and put on a smile to show me how brave you are. You’ll have to be a good grown up girl and take care of your sister while you’re gone you know. She’s still a baby really-
Grace was four , very nearly five. Why did she get to be a baby when Patsy had to be a good grown up girl?
‘-so you shall have to be like a little Mama to her. I know you won’t let me down, will you dear?’
She didn’t feel at all sure, but Patsy did as she was told, standing up straight and plastering a too-big smile across her face as she answered ‘no Mama’, even as her heart pounded away and her palms grew sticky with sweat.
‘Good girl. Now, that’s enough talk, I need you to pack a little case for you and Grace. I’ve left a list of what you’ll need on the hall table so it shouldn’t be too difficult. We’ll be going to the station in the morning, so I want you to finish before bed, alright?’
‘We’re leaving tomorrow ?’
‘Yes dear, I just said that didn’t I? It really is tiresome when you make me say everything twice. We shall go to the station after breakfast tomorrow. So, pack what you need tonight - only what it says on the list though, you’ll need to fit it all in one case as Grace won’t be able to manage her own, so do be sensible. I wish I could stay and help, but I have Mrs Edwards arriving any minute to discuss the WI fundraiser, and I’m afraid they simply can’t get along without me. But you can manage, can’t you Patience?’
Patsy nodded, keeping the big, silly grin stretched uncomfortably across her face until her mother had disappeared down the stairs, then she let the smile drop and her shoulders slump.
She reached into her pocket for Matilda, giving her head a gentle stroke with the tip of one finger, reassured by the familiar velvet softness of her. She imagined her bear reaching up to hold her finger with a tiny paw and tell her that she wasn’t going to be on her own at all. If anything the slightest bit scary happened while they were away then she would simply call out to all her big bear friends and they would come to the rescue.
‘I might be just a little bear myself Patsy, but I’m a bear queen and my friends are the biggest, fiercest bears in the world, they won’t let anything bad happen to us’.
She sighed and closed her fingers around the teddy for just a moment, wishing she really could summon some giant bears to come and take care of her. She could live in their cave and eat honey sandwiches every day and sleep between the big paws of the mother bear where not even bad dreams would dare to trouble her...
Patsy let Matilda drop gently back into her pocket and trailed miserably out to the hall to find the list. On her way out the door she glanced back at her book and hesitated for a moment, but then left it where it had fallen, its pages splayed out forlornly on the floor. She didn’t have time for Wonderland anymore.
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Fate and Choices (ch. 02)
Summary: When Naruto discovered who was going to be his soulmate, he jumped straight at this opportunity, looking forward to spending the rest of his life with his better half. Sasuke well…he was less eager in this regard though. NaruSasu. Soulmates tattoos. M-rated.
Content: AU!Office, Romance, Comedy, Drama, it’ll get a little too philosophical in some parts talking about free will Vs fate, basically Sasuke is a cynic ass and Naruto is an idealistic moron (great amirite), Anal Sex, tattoos soulmates
Chapter 01 here
AO3 link
--.--
“Hey! Jackass!”
Sasuke stiffened, bracing himself from the incoming impact.
“Fucking bastard thought you were gonna get rid of me, ‘s not going to be that easy you know!”
Sasuke was rubbing his legs with a wince; good gracious, years have passed and this idiot continued to be the same loudmouth dumbass. He turned back to Neji. “Please fire him.”
Neji blinked. “It’s my company and I’m the one who hired him Sasuke.”
“I know, but I’m saying that you should fire for our sanity’s sake.”
“Wow, that’s so mean.” Naruto grumbled, widening a grin. “You haven’t changed one bit Sasuke. Plus, there’s no way Neji would fire me when I’m the best social media manager you ever met!”
Sasuke rolled his eyes then threw a significant glance towards Neji.
Neji shook his head. “Yes, sorry to say but Naruto is pretty good. He is one of the few I know that can build a good number of followers organically in a short time. I guess you’ll have to deal with it. Just use this opportunity for some catching up ok.” He patted Sasuke’s shoulder and stared at Naruto in deadpan. “Please don’t destroy the office.”
“C’mon Neji, you really think we’re gonna get back to fighting as if we’re twelve? Give me some credit will you.” Naruto’s grin became so wide that it reminded him of a cheshire’s cat.
“...right.” Neji looked around, and picked an antique vase on the way out.
Sasuke stared at Naruto and his winsome beam, then gazed at the door knob.
He turned around.
“Oh? Ignoring me and fleeing again? The coward's obvious choice.”
Turning back with a venomous glare, Sasuke approached Naruto. “Well, I suppose there’s no point delaying any longer. What do you want from me?”
The caustic tone dissolved Naruto’s grin into a frown, so he mumbled. “What the hell did I do wrong for you to act like an asshole around me?”
Sasuke inhaled, taking some seconds to recompose himself as he retorted. “You’re right, my attitude was wholly unneeded, but I can’t help it. I still need to know why on earth you decided to reappear in my life when I made pretty clear that I don’t want you around.”
“Good God, I can’t believe that you don’t want your soulmate after this many years⏤”
“Don’t go there.” Sasuke growled through gritted teeth.
“Ugh, fine.” Naruto rolled his eyes. “You know, after what we’ve been through, I thought that at least you would bother yourself to give me an explanation or at least keep some kind of contact.”
“I can’t believe you took seriously our summer fling.”
Naruto stared, and then quirked an eyebrow. “Three years is not a summer fling.”
“Whatever, but it happened while we were young and stupid, so it is a fling no matter how long it took.” Before Naruto could protest, Sasuke interjected in. “Everything was going fine in my life back when you left me alone in peace, so why did you decide out of nowhere to get back in bothering me again?”
Naruto curled down his mouth, examining Sasuke’s indecipherable face as graphite eyes focused glowering at the ground. He knew that Sasuke wasn’t going to be cheerfully welcoming his return though he expected at least some positive reaction.
Scratching his blond head, Naruto sighed. “Sasuke, back when your parents divorced” He could see Sasuke tensing on the corner of his eye but he continued nevertheless. “I really wished you could rely on me to share your feelings about it but you just decided to throw me out of your life. But I respected that this was your way of coping and later I also get why you did that⏤”
“If you got it, why are you here now?”
Naruto blinked and declared with strong assurance. “Because I’m your soulmate.”
“We only have matching tattoos dumbass, nothing else.”
“Only matchin⏤” Naruto groaned. “Oh c’mon, gimme your hand in case you forgot about it.”
“No.” Sasuke held his hand closer to his chest, dodging away from Naruto’s grasp.
“You stubborn bastard⏤”
“Dumbass, get the fuck away⏤” The young men wrestled in the conference room, stumbling through chairs and knocking down assorted papers and pens.
“Sasuke, goddammit, just for a few seconds, I swear!” Naruto yowled, arms stretched out in a vain attempt to reach Sasuke’s hand.
Sighing, Sasuke lowered his arm. “I’ll humor you for once, I guess.” He raised his palm, showing his moon tattoo.
Naruto broadened a victorious smile, interlacing his tanned fingers with pale ones. When their tattoos touched, a warm ball of light grew till it lit up the whole room, but Sasuke dropped his hand, cutting off its connection.
"You felt that right, once again. That wave of happiness, the comfort, contentment. We complete each other.” Breathing heavily, remnants of those emotions overwhelmed him, soulful blue eyes attempted to reach his soulmate.
Sasuke averted his gaze, crafting a blank expression and shrugged. “I disagree with this. Those feelings are probably some kind of animalistic instinct to preserve our species and I’m beyond all that. Why do people keep claiming that they need to find their other half? I’m already one whole person, I’m against the notion that you need someone else to feel complete.”
Raising his eyebrows impressed, Naruto hummed pensive, conceding. "Alright…that's a very fair point. But no matter how complete you are, you need relationships to sustain yourself. Family, coworkers, friends…we're humans that need other people all the time. And isn't it great that nature gave us this tool to find the best companion that will share his lifetime with you?"
"This system is flawed and imperfect Naruto. You know it as well as I do." Sasuke retorted. "And I'd rather not waste my life blindly relying over something that might fail in the long run."
“You're selling a technology that lets people find their own soulmate.” Naruto muttered incredulously.
“I sell the tool, not the satisfaction nor its promise for happiness." Sasuke offered with a prim sniff, chin raised. "And whatever might be my business, it has nothing to do with my personal opinion, in which is that I'm fine not needing a soulmate."
"Why? I thought we were in agreement back then!"
"Which goes back to the talk that we were just young and naive, that's all. I changed my mind."
“Honestly, why are you going so against it, it’s like one of those obvious laws of nature. It’s inevitable, like…" Naruto paused for a second, trying to come up with valid examples. "Like gravity, physics, and everything like…babies would always cry…um…dogs are angels and cats are evil…”
“How dare you, you take back that last sentence right fucking now.” Sasuke growled.
“Alright, maybe cats are also nice, I’ll let you adopt one when we live together!”
“No, thank you. And for every supposed law of nature, it’s never entirely universal. You can use aerodynamics to fly above gravity, cats can save kids and dogs can bite⏤”
“And babies crying?” Naruto chimed in.
“...tiny baby lizards don’t cry.” Sasuke regretted it the instant he uttered these words, he knew that his IQ would just drop if he’d spend one minute more with this dumbass, Naruto is just this infectious. "That doesn't matter. I thought I came here so I could talk about work, not engaging in those childish conversations that go nowhere."
"...so." Naruto smacked his lips and grinned. "I am your social media manager then."
Sasuke stared and narrowed his eyes. "My company's social media."
"Yeah yeah yeah, whatever. You have my phone number and Line? It's⏤"
“I know your number, I just have to unblock you.”
Sasuke half-expected Naruto bristling in indignation when he got the confirmation that he was indeed, blocking him out over those years. A crestfallen despair flashed through Naruto’s eyes, before blossoming to a warm smile.
“I’m just glad we’re talking again, that’s all that matters.”
Sasuke wanted to tell him that it’s only work related. That it won’t change his mind and once the contract would be over, they would part their respective ways. Caustic, sharp words had to be uttered so he could end this nonsense at last, but somehow it died on his throat when his whole soul ached to reach Naruto’s face and kiss the pained frown away.
Thankfully, a knock from the door broke their stupor, and Naruto opened to meet Neji and some of Sasuke’s coworkers.
“Well, it seems that their meeting is over. Anyways, Hoozuki-sama, Yamato-sama, Uzumaki Naruto-san here will be in charge of Shinrei’s whole social media account, as well as strategy and planning.”
Naruto and Sasuke’s coworkers shook hands and exchanged name cards, bowing politely as they began the meeting. Suigetsu quirked his eyebrow, noticing how Sasuke always averted his gaze whenever he talked with Uzumaki-san, even though the blond man stared as if Sasuke was the only man in the whole room.
Those were intense, covetous azure eyes that somehow weren't much tainted with lust. Curiosity piqued, Suigetsu dragged his friend to the side while Naruto was talking with the other coworker.
“So…from all the interactions I witnessed, it seems that you and that blondie have some history together right. What happened?”
Sasuke glared. “Nothing.”
“Oh c’mon, just tell me! It’s the first time I ever saw you being so nervous around a guy, whatever happened has to be something big.”
Sasuke sighed, shutting his eyes. He uttered in the most bored tone he could muster. “Naruto is my soulmate.”
Suigetsu blinked. “…huh?”
“My soulmate.” Sasuke repeated. “He’s my soulmate.”
“WHAT?!” Suigetsu shouted, switching his gaze back and forth towards Sasuke and Naruto. “You lucky dog, you found your soulmate this easily?! And he’s hot too!”
“He is?” Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows, then turned around for a quick check. No, that’s the usual dumbass, stupid grin Naruto, there’s nothing new about that.
“God, the fact that you don’t want a soulmate makes even less sense now! I want a hottie like him riding me till tomorrow for the rest of my life.” Suigetsu noticed the black eyebrow twitching in annoyance and curled a saucy grin. “I better get first in line if he’s interested.”
“Whatever suits you best.” Sasuke grumbled, as they all moved back to the entrance, as the meeting was over.
Someone poked his shoulder. “Hey hey. Sasuke.” He turned his face, glare activated but halted at once when he felt moist lips touching his skin. “Have a nice day.” Naruto beamed.
He furiously rubbed his cheek with his hand, growling. “I’m going to kill you.”
“So testy, I just gave you one innocent peck on your cheek.” Laughing, Naruto patted his back while he returned to the office.
Neji observed the grin that stretched from ear to ear and muttered. “Oh dear me. It’s been a while since I saw you smiling this much.”
“Well, duh. Obviously.”
“Hm. You’re satisfied with the arrangement then?”
“Yeah! Thanks for everything Neji.”
“Likewise. I hope whatever conclusion you two will reach, it’ll be satisfactory to you both.” Pearly eyes peered in earnest intensity, so Naruto offered a half-grin back. “But I would like to remind you that Sasuke is our client, right.”
“Yeah, don’t worry about it.” Naruto appeased him.
“Don’t go too far.”
“I won’t!”
“Please don’t annoy Sasuke too much, okay.”
There was a long silence and then. “Uh. Sure!”
Is it too late to change his own mind; Neji wondered with a sigh.
⏤.⏤
Six hundred, forty three. That’s the number of times Sasuke had to suppress the urge to throw Suigetsu out of the car, whenever his friend nagged wanting to know more details about Naruto.
He hoped once he arrived in his office, all this nonsense would be over so he could concentrate on his work. Promising gruesome bloody murder if Suigetsu ever dared to gossip about his love life, he strode to Itachi’s room.
“Nii-san.”
“Oh, welcome back otouto-kun. How was the meeting? How is Neji-kun?” Itachi acknowledged him with a quick nod, eyes still focused on the laptop.
“Neji is fine, his marketing plan is really well planned and he is just going to make us cover the basic costs, nothing else.” Sasuke paced around, and said. “Nii-san, you won’t believe who is going to take care of our social media.”
“Oh, Neji told me. I’ve heard that he’s a really bright, young man…” Itachi raised his eyes to meet with Sasuke’s, a knowing beam broadening his lips. “Blond, blue eyes, who has an exquisite sun tattoo that fits with your moon tattoo pretty perfectly…”
“What the f⏤!” Sasuke tamped down the urge to scream, throwing his hands to the air. “I can’t believe you all! You, Neji and Naruto all planned this?! I can’t believe that you would betray me. You’re my brother!”
“And as your older brother, I agreed with Neji-kun that you avoiding Naruto-kun is damaging you in the long run, but considering your stubbornness I thought that it’d be better if I nudged a little in the right direction.”
“Unbelievable. I thought that you, of all people, understood me the best considering the experience we suffered with mother and father.”
Sighing, Itachi stilled in commiseration, picking his tea cup. He sipped the warm beverage, murmuring. “I considered these memories for a long time, but I concluded that I shouldn’t let them deter my life. It’s specifically because of them that I’m determined to find the perfect companionship with my soulmate.”
Sasuke scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, big words from someone who didn’t bother himself to find his own soulmate. You know really well that he or she lives in the Netherlands but you kept delaying buying the plane ticket.”
“…I have…other priorities for now.” Itachi argued with a clipped tone.
“No, you just share the same trauma as I do but since it’s not your problem, you thought you could manipulate however you liked about my own life. It is your loss though, because even if our parents’ divorce may had influenced my opinion about Soulmates, I have valid reasons to reject it.” Sasuke declared, tightening his hands into a fist. “I’ll do this damn job with Naruto just to prove you, and then we’ll go on our own goddamn different paths. Just you wait.”
“…” Itachi studied his younger brother’s agitated state, eyebrows knitted, resolute.
Honestly, Sasuke had already grown old enough to be in any need of his guidance, but above all, he wasn’t really accepting any of it even if Itachi tried to drill any word in his hard-headed mind. From now on he guessed he’d leave it up to Naruto, and he hoped the young man would have enough patience handling his younger brother.
⏤.⏤
Naruto was being…strange. At first, Sasuke expected that the dumbass would use the opportunity that he unblocked his contact to flirt with him, or engage inane conversation or send dick pics. The blond man was oddly very considerate nevertheless, using their chats for strict professional subjects, not one thing out of line.
On the other hand, they had a lot of physical meetings. At first it was only once per week, not arousing his suspicion as Sasuke considered that Naruto probably had a lot of questions that it’d be better clarified with these kinds of meetings. The following week they had twice per week and then thrice. Also, whatever professional courtesy Naruto had respected in chats, was thrown out of the window when he saw Sasuke, trying to start off-topic conversations, sitting really close to him and generally being a pain in the ass.
(Sasuke didn’t want to admit that he was enjoying those meetings)
When Naruto called, ready to schedule another meeting, Sasuke rebutted. “A meeting? Online meeting, you meant.”
“Oh no, like a meeting, meeting. As in, me going to your office or you going to mine and…”
“For someone who only uses online tools for your everyday work, you oddly prefer a face to face meeting for no particular reason.”
“What can I say, I’m a people’s person after all.” Naruto chuckled. “Well, if you’re too busy we can reschedule if you want.”
Sasuke narrowed his eyes. This really felt like some sort of measured chess game, when one man was carefully choosing which pieces to sacrifice or to keep it alive. He expected that since Naruto was so impatient he’d prefer a direct approach instead of slowly luring him in.
“Then again, I haven’t seen him for over seven years, who knows how much he had changed since then.”
⏤.⏤
UGH.
This is so fucking hard.
What Naruto really wanted was to drag Sasuke to some secluded room and have his way until they were both satisfied. But nope, that stupid ass bastard is just too stubborn and suspicious of everything that if he did any sudden move, Naruto was afraid that Sasuke would disappear to some far away country, like Canada or Argentina or something like that.
Was he asking for too much in wanting to have his soulmate back? Was he? He just wanted life to be easier for once. Stupid Sasuke. Why. Uuuuugh. Now Sasuke was already getting suspicious that they were having way too many meetings and Naruto wanted at least some compensation for using all his remaining patience to let Sasuke dictate this fucking slower than slug pace.
He heard the familiar ping, unlocking his phone.
Sorry, just finished a meeting now. I’m going to arrive 15 minutes late.
Oooooh?
Grinning, Naruto noticed Sasuke typing some response but he was quicker.
Uchiha-sama is going to be late? My eyes didn’t deceive me just now, did I really read that?
Moron.
Naruto laughed, thankful that his typing speed was faster than Sasuke’s. I mean, Uchiha Sasuke-sama is actually going to be late for the first time in his life. Wow, it’s going to rain knives today.
It’s not my fault dumbass, the sponsor I was talking with wanted more details about my software. And he’s an old man it was difficult to explain in layman terms.
Ah, yeah…sounds tough. Don’t worry about it, I can wait while I’m working. Thanks for the heads up.
Sasuke snorted, relaxing his shoulders on the taxi seat while he stared at the buildings passing by. Opening a new company was so hard, so many people to visit, so many potential sponsors and clients to sell your product. There were also many annoying obligations to register your company and documentation to smooth things through too. His father gave enough initial investments to help them open the business but aside that, they were really green, unsure what steps to proceed in a shrewd market.
Thanks to Naruto’s strategies their brand is getting recognition between specialists for now, some well-known influencers tested their technology, aiding him to show tangible successes in the effort to convince people. But although they were impressed, few signed the deed, not wanting to risk their precious capital over an infant company.
Exhaling a tired breath, he went to the conference room after he greeted Neji. The moment he opened the door, he immediately picked the nice fragrance of fresh cooked rice.
“Hey. I’m just gonna finish retouching some reports and we’ll start the meeting right away.” Naruto said.
In front of him laid a neat porcelain plate with three onigiris, then a tomato salad inside a plastic package and even Caramel dark chocolate from a fancy brand.
“Oh yeah, feel free to dig in, I bought this for you.”
At this admission his stomach growled and Sasuke licked his lips. “How did you know I was hungry?” Sharp graphite eyes narrowed.
“Well…if I’m not mistaken, you usually eat around 12:30 or something right? Unless you changed your habit, I mean. But it’s already 1 pm, and you didn’t mention stopping a little to eat lunch, so I thought it would be best if I bought something for you.”
…Naruto still remembered all his favorite foods. Warm beats expanded in his chest and Sasuke forcibly tamped it down. This is just residual instinct caused by this soulmating system, it had nothing to do with his feelings. He savored each bite in silence while Naruto gave the monthly report.
Hmph. Dumbass.
--.--
Chapter 03
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A Reminder of You
Street markets were always a sight for sore eyes for Eris. All the travel on missions really wore down on her along with all the fighting. Sometimes, a few hours of shopping local goods was good for the soul. Something about all the cute little trinkets and snacks never failed to make her happy.
Qrow was never as enthused it seemed, but he could never say no to Eris, and they had already finished their mission so there was no excuse for him to say no. So here they were, Eris bounding from one stall to another and Qrow slowly trailing behind.
Every once in a while Eris holds up something, yelling out to Qrow, smiling wide to show him. Qrow never really gave her a big response but Eris could tell by his small expressions how he felt. A no on a small glass animal, a maybe to a wooden box. Eris politely slots them back into their places, mostly content to just share her finds with her partner. Hunting partner. Nothing more.
Well friends, of course, but the word partner could get so loaded in her mind that she had to stomp it out whenever it sprouted up. She wanted it, sure, but she was only one half of the partnership and the potential of ruining what they had... the price was too heavy. So she was content to spend her days and nights fighting by his side, because being with him was what matters.
Lost in her thoughts she almost missed a stand, but thank goodness she didn’t because it made her eyes light up. Sure it was probably made for small children, but a stand full of plushies was right up her alley. So many small stuffed animals, so little money. But they did just finish a mission so one little one couldn’t hurt... but which one to pick. A little cat, a lizard, a crow-
A crow! Eris quickly grabs it and runs to the outer edge of the stall, poking out to find Qrow. There he was, only two stands back.
“Qrow! Qrow!” Eris hides the plush behind her back.
Qrow perks up at his name, turning to Eris with a raised brow. With a huge grin on her face Eris pulls the crow out from behind her back.
“Look, it’s you!” The small orb-like crow sits perfectly in her hand, looking at Qrow with red bead eyes.
Qrow’s face immediately fell into the ‘really’ look, but not one out of malice, but fond annoyance.
Eris continues to beam as she waggles the crow around a bit. “My name is Qrow and I’m tiny and grumpy. Caw caw caw.”
“Eris.” Qrow is clearly hiding a grin as he walks closer.
“I’m so scary and intimidating caw ca-“ Eris is cut off by grabbing the plush out of her hands. “Hey!”
Qrow looks it over carefully, holding it up out of Eris’ reach. “I’m not this tiny. Or this round.”
“You wish you were that cute!” She jumps up and snatches the bird back and holds it close to her. “Don’t get jealous cause there might be another man in my life.”
“Yes. I’m so jealous and wounded you would pick someone else over me.” His voice is filled with sarcasm, accented with a smirk.
“Well I’m going to get him.” Eris pulls out her wallet and walks back over to the seller, handing over the cash. She then walks back out, very proud of her new purchase.
“Now there’s two of you.” She hold the bird next to her face, looking up at Qrow.
“You’re really going to drag that everywhere aren’t you?” Qrow says as they start to wander to the next stand.
“Of course I am.” Eris slides him into her bag, making sure it’s little head was poking out.
“You’re ridiculous.”
“Yeah, yeah. But you stick around me so who’s really the ridiculous one.”
“You’ve got a good point.”
After that they fall back into their regular pattern, with one extra little bird joining them. And after that she does carry it everywhere, it never straying too far from her person. At night it sits in bed with her, not exactly a perfect stand in, but a comfort none the less.
The little crow wasn’t him, but she loved the reminder of him all the same.
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So all the way back in August I wrote two parts of a little dog walker AU - G9 and Hankcon. I told @connorssock there was going to be an Allen60 part and then life kinda kicked my ass...but here it is, as promised! One grumpy sibling, coming right up! ;D
cw: if you don’t like snakes, there is mention of them here and a brief description, so this may not be your cup of tea
--
Sixty was quietly glaring at both of his brothers as they fussed around the house. It was Saturday, which was all of their day off. Which should mean it was a day for relaxing and watching dumb movies all together. That’s how it always used to be. Somehow though, both of his brothers had turned into morons the minute they met a guy who would give them the time of day. Neither of the guys in question were even relatively worthy of his brothers, in Sixty’s opinion. Tiny yelling man and big unkempt man were not exactly what he had in mind for his incredible siblings. It definitely wasn’t that he was feeling left out and left behind now that they both had...well, not quite official boyfriends, but close enough to be terrible.
Another pointed sigh left Sixty’s lips as Connor fussed in front of the mirror to make sure that his new shirt looked okay. It did, of course, although Sixty wouldn’t have been caught dead in that shade of blue. They may have been twins, but he had the better taste of the family. “Oh come off it Sixty, stop being such a grump.” Niles said, glancing over at him from where he was checking to make sure the picnic basket was packed, “We already told you we want you to come with us to the shelter. It’s not like we’re ditching your or anything. We just know you hate the outdoors and also Hank and Gavin, so you’re not invited to the picnic afterwards.”
“But I don’t like animals either!” Sixty whined, giving up the pretense of not being upset over the direction today was taking. That got an eye roll from both of his brothers, who had been brainwashed into caring about furry pests by their boyfriends. The fur made Sixty sniffle, and he hated how clingy that stupid little dog Connor was taking care of was. Who needed that much attention all the time?? When there was no response from either of his brothers though, Sixty realized that he had really run out of chances. If he didn’t go with them he’d be left behind for real. Biting back the sting of that realization, he spat out “Fucking fine. I’ll go. But I’m not going to be nice to either of your stupid boys.”
Which was how, unfortunately, Sixty found himself at the local animal shelter, idly glaring at the collection of cats in cages. Connor and Hank were off with Sumo no doubt making doe eyes at each other and blushing or something, and Gavin had dragged Niles away to look at some particularly pathetic rescue dog. Fitting, Sixty thought, for a pathetic rescue himself. He sighed again, this time more dejectedly since no one was around to hear him. Just all these little mewling furballs, which were already making his nose itch. Eyeing them suspiciously, Sixty wandered to the end of the room and leaned on the door there. Probably just a supply closet, and besides he was here alone.
Or so he thought, until the door behind him budged open and Sixty was forced to straighten up with an offended yelp. “Watch it!” He said, crossing his arms and already glaring at whoever had dared to disturb his moping. The man who emerged didn’t look fazed at all, even though his was a good few inches shorter than Sixty and thus had to tilt his chin up to give him a perplexed look. “You’re the one who should watch it. This is a working door.” He replied, gesturing at the label Sixty had missed - ‘Exotic Animals’.
“Psh. Exotic animals. What’re those, animals with little stripper heels on?” Sixty sneered, giving the man in front of him a good once over. He was shorter, obviously, but stocky and clearly well muscled. The uniform helped, Sixty thought snootily, probably bulking him out with that dumb bullet proof vest. “Or are they such dangerous animals that you have to show up in full riot gear, Mr. Allen.” Sixty added, reading the last name off the clear name badge embroidered on the uniform. Allen simply chuckled and shrugged off both of the barbs. “I mean, I’d be impressed if you managed to get these little guys into stripper heels.” He said, clearly amused by the idea, “And as for the uniform, I’m on my lunch break. Didn’t exactly think I needed to look like a bum to visit the animal shelter.”
Sixty feigned a gasp, but he had to admit he hadn’t exactly dressed his best for today. He was going to have to wash these clothes anyways later, what with all the pet dander, so he was in a simple T-shirt and jeans. “Fine, I was wrong.” He admitted through gritted teeth, “Now are you going to tell me what the fuck an exotic animal is?” Instead of answering, Allen opened the door and gestured for Sixty to go in, which he did with some trepidation. If he got abducted or murdered or whatever he was going to kill Connor and Niles for it. But instead of stepping into a murder room or a strip club, Sixty found himself in a dim room filled with tanks. Lots and lots of tanks, some of which were bathed in warm golden light from the heat lamps inside them.
“My team did a raid on a drug dealer - turns out the dude had a thing for snakes. I just came to check on them and see how the little devils were doing here in the shelter.” Allen explained, but Sixty was barely listening. He had drifted closer to one of the tanks where a snake was simply sitting and sunning itself on a big rock, tongue lazily flicking in and out. “This...you can have these as pets?” He asked, looking back at Allen with an embarrassing amount of wonder in his eyes. He had never known that pets could actually be cool animals. This snake didn’t give a shit that he was here, it was just enjoying itself. It was perfect.
Allen laughed at that, and his smile made the corners of his eyes crinkle up. Sixty wasn’t sure why he noticed that. “I mean, hell yeah. I’ve got a few lizards at home myself, although I’ve never dabbled in snakes. They’re pretty chill, if you care for them the right way.” Something in Sixty’s chest was tight and warm at that description, and he turned back to the snake in its tank with the beginnings of a smile himself. Pretty chill if you cared for them the right way. Yeah. He felt, rather than saw, the way that Allen was watching him take in the snake, but he found he didn’t mind all that much.
It took half an hour, but by the time the three brothers walked out of the shelter, Sixty was carrying Sir Hiss in his new carrier and practically beaming. Connor was trying to hold back his own smile, while Niles kept throwing distressed looks at the box. But Sixty didn’t care. He had a new pet, one that would hang out with him while he was home and not care if he wasn’t the best conversationalist. And on top of that, he had the card of a certain ‘Captain Allen - SWAT Team Specialist’ in his pocket. You know, for advice on reptiles.
#dbh#detroit become human#allen60#dbh allen#captain allen#dbh connor 60#connor rk800-60#bready's fic#whoever gets the snake's name reference gets a smooch emoji lol
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Short Spinner Fic!
Well, more like meta/headcanon turned prose. Sorta. unbeta’d, terrible grammar prob, very on the nose, but I just had to write something that dealt with what we learned about Spinner’s past.
1,615 words. Set right after Stain got captured, with all that fun stuff about discrimination.
-
The night Spinner saw the news report that would change his life, he had spent ten minutes lingering outside his landlord’s door, trying to work up the nerve to knock.
From his third floor apartment to her home on the first floor - that short walk took three minutes maximum, but in that time the heat and humidity of the May evening had already made his hair damp and the collar of his shirt slightly darken with moisture. By the dim glow of the streetlight, Spinner tried to use his phone’s selfie camera to see if he looked too bad, but his nervousness at appearing sloppy only added sweat to his sorry appearance. The snickering of a couple of kids that passed by him hadn’t help.
He should be fine, Spinner had muttered to himself, tried to convince himself, shoving the phone into a pocket. He was fine. She wasn’t going to even notice.
But of course she did. When his landlord opened the door, he saw her smile fade slightly at the sight of him; then the curve of her mouth disappeared completely as her eyes swept over his messy hair and landed on his hand that was discreetly trying to stop his shirt from sticking to his skin.
It was only downhill from there.
He had stammered, had tried to keep a smile on his face until he realize he was probably looking like crazy dumbass; then he had worried too much about the appropriate distance he should be keeping (His landlord was a petite woman that barely reached maybe 5 foot, and he was a 6-foot lizard man. Standing too far away would be weird, and standing too close meant, besides the obvious, that he would have to look down at her, which he thought might seem disrespectful).
When he told her about the broken AC, she had asked if he wasn’t enjoying the warm weather, and Spinner had let the silence drag on too long as he wondered what she might have meant by that. Such an innocuous question, but it made his pulse quicken. Was she making a comment that assumed he was more comfortable with heat because he looked like a lizard (answer: no, because he wasn’t cold-blooded; so no, he didn’t like the heat; and yes, he can get heatstroke, so if the AC wasn’t going to get fixed in time for the worst heat of July...)? Did that mean she wasn’t going to do anything about it, if it didn’t seem like a serious matter?
Or was he being paranoid? Insulting, even, for this unfounded accusation?
So the talk had achieved nothing, except maybe giving his landlord an even worse impression of him. He hadn’t even told her about the suspicious grey spots that was covering more and more of his ceiling with each passing day. (Monsoon season sucked.)
Back at his apartment, Spinner opened a can of beer and sat slumped against the wall, using his phone to look up ways to remove the mold himself. He clicked the first link, found himself immediately redirected to a product page that flashed it’s 5500 yen deal at him, and promptly gave up.
That was when he opened his Tweetr feed for some mindless scrolling and saw the internet aflame with news about an attack on Hosu.
-
All day at work, Spinner kept checking for updates on the Hero Killer Stain, so much that his boss threaten to break his phone and fire him. But even that couldn’t clear the cloud of obsession that had developed inside his head.
At first it was simply fun to watch and rewatch the video of him rescuing a kid, how cool it was to see the man escape from the ropes that bound him, zoomed past the Heroes, leapt into the air to take down the winged beast with a single stab to the brain. Those blades and that red scarf, snaking through the air behind him. All in a matter of seconds, and all that not being his quirk. Pure normal human ability.
From there, it was reading the articles that kept coming out - that happened in Hosu, who Stain was, what he had done.
What he believed in.
There was once when Spinner wanted to be a Hero. What kid hadn’t? He dreamed of it. Being able to wear an awesome costume, beating up bad guys and bullies and saving people, getting to be on TV and making lots of money. Heroes were amazing and they could do anything. Heroes had all sorts of different quirks, the only thing that matter being how well they could use their ability. Heroes could be anyone - even mutants like him.
And as dreams do, that faded when he grew up and woke up to real life.
Watching the viral video that someone had made of the Hero Killer, though, Spinner realized Stain kept his dream. Forced it into reality, undaunted by hard work or danger or the law. He saw something wrong with the world and decided to change it. Just like that. It was badass. It was admirable.
It was Heroic.
So how ironic and slightly disappointing it was, that Stain was now called a Villain, that it turned out he was working with that group that attacked those UA kids a few months back. Spinner found the grainy zoomed-in clip of the two guys standing on top of a water tower, watching the chaos in the city below. He found all he could about the UA incident and the man the news named as Shigaraki Tomura.
He was part of this group that Stain joined, and Spinner wondered if maybe, like Stain, he wasn’t just a Villain. Like Stain, he was out to change the world.
-
In the origin story of Spinner, Villain, would be the cup of tea that made a crucial decision for him.
His landlord’s apartment was ten times the size of his tiny one-room apartment, and Spinner felt almost agoraphobic sitting in her living room. This was a proper home, well cared for, housing a family. The last time Spinner had even spoken to a blood relative of his was years ago. He was intruding.
But the landlord had done a surprise inspection while he was at work, and she was concerned about the mold on his ceiling. In his zeal over Stain, Spinner had completely forgotten about dealing with that. Now he got to do a redux of the talk from a few days ago, and he had a feeling this might go even worse.
He never would find out if that was true, nor would he find out what would have been done about the mold. A few words into the small talk that preceded the actual conversation, his landlord’s young son had tried to be helpful and brought tea for both his mom and Spinner. Kid was probably only in elementary school, but so polite. Too much so.
Spinner watched as his landlord shifted uncomfortably in her seat, eyes flickering back and forth from the cup of tea set in front of Spinner, and Spinner himself.
It felt unbearably hot and suffocating in the room.
(Once, a cousin told Spinner that regardless of how much DNA would prove they were human, they weren’t. Not really, not in practice, not to the people they live among. They looked like lizards, so they’d be treated like lizards. Like animals, and you wouldn’t feed your pet using a bowl you would use, right? It’ll be dirty, no matter how much you washed it. That’s why there’s food bowls specifically for your dog, cat, whatever.)
It was much too late to for her to take back the drink without seeming astonishingly rude. Maybe Spinner should help her save face and decline the tea, have the kid take it away. Maybe he can use this as leverage for the mold problem. Maybe--
--he shouldn’t have to put up with this. There were people out there right now, ready to face down Heroes and police and society, ready to create change, ready to take their lives and fate into their hands and shape it to their liking. Stain hadn’t allow himself to be trampled down.
Spinner shouldn’t either.
That was when he stood up and left without a word.
-
The leader was different than what Spinner expected.
In the small private bar that the broker had taken him to, Shigaraki Tomura sat on one of the stools, young and bone-thin, dressed so plainly in simple black shirt and pants. Not quite the criminal mastermind Spinner imagined. Yet all attention in the room was held by him, and he wielded that authority with ease.
“Shuichi Iguchi… Spinner.” Shigaraki spoke and Spinner anticipated each word. “Our fight is for all the right reasons, but the world is going to hate us for it. Condemn us. Try to destroy us. We’ll have to return in kind. We’ll have get our hands dirty, we’ll have to sacrifice a lot.”
Shigaraki shifted his head, and suddenly all Spinner could focus on was that one red eye looking through the fingers of the severed hand on his face, filled with all the same rage and desire and intensity that Stain had. Its gaze pierce through Spinner, making him wince as though he was physically cut.
Hatred was nothing new to him, though, and he had nothing else in this world than this newfound will. He’d do anything, all for Stain. All for his new comrades. All this, Spinner said out loud.
Shigaraki grinned at him, a smile so wide and vicious and-- happy, that Spinner felt his own face mirror that excitement.
“Welcome to the League of Villains.”
-
So my Spinner goes from a nervous mild-mannered guy trying to live a life, to a terrorist ready to murder kids in like three short days. I should figure out his characterization better next time lol
#nalslastworkingbraincell#nalwrites#Spinner#Shigaraki Tomura#Shuichi Iguchi#Stain - sorta#fanfiction#microaggressions and housing discrimination and dehumanization oh my#am i just set on making the bnha universe a pile of crap#perhaps#oops#we don't know if it's this bad but#i'm gonna let my imagination go wild#League of Villains#as for my other story...#it's getting beta-read!#i'll have it out by friday prob#my apologies
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Haunted
@lynea-kureji
youtube
Taken a week after Storm the Castle. Song matches the sadness.
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A week
A week has passed after his death.
To even the mood, heavy downpour rained down endlessly till the sidewalk drains are flooded. Raindrop pelted the window of an enshrouded room where a figure sat, knees pulled up to his chest, arms folded to pillow his face and tail coiled around his feet for comfort.
Toshi was given a whole week of break from school seeing that he and his mother need time to heal after his estranged father's death. Some friends, Star and Marco included, would come by to share their support and comfort to heal their pain and would leave gifts to cheer them up.
However, Toshi was depressed that his last words to his father were "I wish you weren't my father." Just as the explosion took over him.
I shouldn't have said that. He gripped his arms tightly until he could feel the tips of his claws digging into the flesh. His shoulders trembled when the urge to wept flooded his heart. He let the tears stream down his cheeks like small waterfalls.
"Toshi......,"
The call of his name halted his tears, rising his head up to meet the mournful face of his mother. They both share the same aura of grief and seeing the sight her son is in brought more sorrow into her heart.
She took a seat next to him and laid an arm around his shoulders, "I miss your father, too. Even though he left us, I still care for him."
"Toshi, whatever happened between you and your father before he died has nothing to do with what you did. Yes, you are not like your father at heart, but I do know is that... deep down...."
"...He loves us," Toshi finished for her. Tearing up, he couldn't stand a sob coming out of him, "It's not like...! It's not like I blame Queen Moon for making him leave us!! If he could just.....If he just let her mother and the king sign the peace treaty that day.....!"
Mint got up and held his face, tenderly stroking his cheeks and wiping away his tear with her thumbs. She wore a sad yet comforting smile and laid her forehead on his, like she always does when she and Toffee were together. And when she comforts him ever since he was born, "It is not your fault, or mine, or your father's. Sometimes.....the ugliness in our hearts would make us do the worst things before it happened just as we know it."
"But you and I are not alone. We have each other, your friends and somewhere....your father will be watching over you. And he will always be alive," she laid her hand on her heart, "In our hearts."
Her wise words have brought Toshi out of the dark, spotting a tiny twitch of a smile at the corner of his lips. Smiling, she planted a loving kiss on the top of his head, stroked his hair tenderly and prepared herself to go down the stairs.
"I'll be out getting some groceries," she informed him, "You can have a snack with the cereal your friends gave you."
"Sure, Mom!"
She's right. Yesterday, he and his mom went out to where Ludo's castle was after the explosion and found his dad's coat and tie. In grievance, he watched his mother adorn his jacket and used his tie as a belt, and saw something in her that he never saw before.
Was it vengeance? Or was it.......confusion? He does not know. Whatever happened when she found the coat, he just had to approach her and hold her as they grief.
Thinking back, his father was supposed to be dead right? And yet......where is his body? Theoretically, his body is destroyed in the explosion so that makes it understandable.
But why does he feel.....scared all of a sudden?
Sighing heavily to himself, he jogged down the stairs and headed straight to the kitchen table. As the family tatzelwurm (a hybrid of a leopard and a gecko), Kurogane, watched him from the counter, he snatched a box of corn-flavored cornflakes, a jug of milk out of the fridge with his tail, a bowl and a spoon.
"Looks like we're having breakfast for snack huh, Kurogane?" He joked a bit to the mewing feline-esque lizard, who understood the joke.
After he offered milk to the gecko cat, he filled his own after putting the cereal in and sat down.
"Haaaaa, has to be corn," he sighed in slight frustration, begrudgingly taking some spoonfuls of the cereal, the sweet taste of corn making his tongue and stomach numb with dissatisfaction. 20 years of eating corn while in hiding in Mewni has made him hate the signature vegetable to the very core of his gut.
Sadly, he didn't tell his friends that he hates corn.
"Maybe I'll tell them I'm not into corn," he suggested to himself. There were two final cereal bits floating and he scooped them up, opening his mouth and allowing the spoon in.
"Shirogane......"
He froze just as the spoon was about to enter his mouth. Bewildered, he scanned the empty house for anything or anyone that called his name. Strange and frightening, that voice sound almost like -
"Shirogane....."
"D-dad?" He trembled, standing up abruptly, making the chair topple back in his haste. Kurogane, sensing something is wrong and the fear emitting from its owner quickly hopped onto his shoulder, trying to get more comfort.
It can't be his dad calling out to him. He's dead two years ago. Killed in the explosion.
"M-must be my imagination....or something," he assumed, gearing his heart beat rapidly like unicorns galloping across the fields, "Must be the rain. It has to."
Something cold landed on his right shoulder. He had thought it was his mom but....why does her hand feel so dead cold and sending shivers down his spine?
Daring a glance to whoever is behind him, he gasped so powerfully he thought his lungs would explode from the huge entrance of oxygen entering them.
Standing behind him, is a tall lacertid creature composed of black tar and slime, with eyes glowing yellow like headlights of a car.
Startled, Toshi collapses on his tail and scrambled back in terror, Kurogane scampering away in terror with a screech and he hit the cabinet, knocking down whatever is on it. The creature slowly advances on him, leaving no trail of slime in its wake, a claw reaching out to him.
A claw with a finger missing.
"No! No no no no! It can't be!!" Toshi threw all sorts of things from the cabinet, hoping it would stun the slime creature. But the objects went pass through it like water, and it continues reaching out for him, its fingers inches to his face.
"Shirogane..." his father's voice resonated out of the slime creature's dripping maw in a haunting whisper.
Toshi was so scared, he just cowered and screamed in peril. Just as the fingers reached out and grabbed him.
(Moment later)
"Toshi! TOSHI!!"
Mint had returned home from grocery shopping eight minutes ago after she was able to go through the heavy rain. Just as she was about to grab the grocery bags, she hears a ruckus coming from the house. When she hears Toshi screaming, her mother instincts kicked in and she quickly raced into the house.
What she found was kitchenware thrown all over the ground and Toshi cowering in the corner like a terrified and cornered animal. Worried and scared, she reached out for him and before she knew it, he began to attack her by slapping his hands at her at random and trying to claw her, screaming and his eyes closed shut.
"Toshi, it's me!! There's nothing here that can hurt you!!"
She successfully grabbed his swatting hands and he was able to open his eyes to see his mom. Not the slime creature that was going after him.
Relieved and scared, he quickly engulfes her in his arms, trembling and shivering as she pats his back to comfort him. She does not know what scared him, but she can smell something is not right here.
What had scared her son to the point he became like this?
(Two days later)
"Thanks for inviting us to sleep over at your place, Toshi," Janna thanked the young lizard as they head into his room.
"It's a pleasure, Jan," he said, "Calling you guys over is the best thing I can think off when it comes to this supernatural stuff."
"Hey, catching ghosts on live camera is something I always wanted to do," she grinned, "Besides, we would be famous if we catch the ghost that attacked you."
After that haunting incident that took place two days ago, Toshi had immediately went straight to the Diaz residence and told them everything that had happened from hearing his dad's voice calling out his name to the slime creature attacking him. They wouldn't name what it is that is haunting him so the duo suggests on bringing the only girl who knows ghosts and hauntings that is Janna.
After taking permission from his mom of staying over for a night at his place, they set up surveillance cameras in the living room, kitchen, attic, basement, his mom's bedroom and the yard to catch any activity. Bringing over the HDTV from Marco's house (much to Marco's dismay when Star is caught dragging it into Toshi's room), they connect the TV to the wireless cameras and get themselves prepared for what's coming on camera.
"You sure I'm being haunted by a ghost, guys?" Toshi questioned with curiosity, "As far as I know, ghosts are not slimy and covered in tar."
"Ghosts come in many forms, Toshi," Marco explained, "It could have been drowned in tar for some reason."
"But I done nothing to kill that person!" Toshi protested innocently.
"That's why we have to find out why this slime ghost is haunting you and find out who it is," Star reassured.
"But still.....Star, have you ever slain a ghost?" He strangely points out. The blonde Mewman had a perplexed and shocked look before she uttered a sad "No" in admitment.
"I like your cat," Janna spoke out, holding up the tatzelwurm.
(8.30 pm)
No activity caught on live camera. But no matter what, the four friends kept a watchful eye on the four segmented screens in case of anything out of the ordinary.
Toshi's mom has left to get some supper for the kids, leaving them alone at their home and wouldn't be back till 9.
To help keep themselves busy and awake, they made a mug of coffee and brought up snacks that were once comforting gifts for Toshi and his mom.
"I didn't know you hate corn," Star burst out in surprise, eating a handful of dry corn-flavored chips, "I mean, corn isn't that bad. You should've met my dad. He really loves corn."
"Try eating corn for 20 years in hiding for the rest of your childhood," the young lizard retorted, gnawing on a jerky.
"Ooooh, that's harsh," Marco hissed with pity.
"Anything?" The blonde asked the Filipino, who is in charge on the screens.
"Nope. All I see is chipmunks sleepwalking in the yard," she reported.
Toshi huffed and folded his arms, "It was morning when it happened. When I'm all alone having breakfast for snack time when it was raining outside."
"Ghosts can be complicated, you know?" The Hispanic pointed out.
Janna suddenly gasped, alerting the three friends and stood up from her sit, staring at the top left screen recording the living room.
"GUYS!! IT'S HERE!!!"
They scrambled forward and crowded together, Toshi looming over Janna's head as all four stare in mixtures of awe, fear, shock and excitement.
On the Living Room Cameras footage, there was a black shape slithering across the floor, heading straight for the stairs that is located in the kitchen. Just like how Toshi described it, it was tall, composed of black tar, has a lacertid shape and glowing yellow eyes.
"It's him! That's the thing that attacked me!" Toshi yelled, jabbing his finger at the slime creature on the screen.
"Holy moly, it's some kind of....ghoul," Janna awed.
"Uh Toshi......do you think what I'm thinking is heading to?" Star whimpered, her voice trembling in fear.
Just as she thought, the Kitchen Camera shows the slime ghost approaching the stairs. As it reaches to two steps, it stops. And glances to the camera.
And it's face takes shape to a face that Toshi, Star and Marco will never forget.
"Oh...," Star squeaked,
"My...," Marco squeaked too,
"Flipping...," Janna gasped in awe,
"God," Toshi finished, eyes wide in total horror.
"Toshi, that ghost that's haunting you...!" The boy gaped in fear.
"It's- it's my -" he stammered.
In a shrill voice and with a deep gasp, Star announced, "IT'S YOUR DAD!!!"
As if on cue, the revealed ghost suddenly struck the Kitchen Camera with a roar. All four teens screamed in full on panic and terror mode as Toshi grabs a huge plank and closed the stairway entrance. Pressing himself against the plank, he screamed some more when his father's ghost begins to bang on it from the other side.
"GO AWAY, GODDAMNIT!!! WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!???!!"
Suddenly, the lights went out along with the banging. Trembling and whimpering, the three teens sat and held onto each other as Toshi scrambles up and rummaged through his closet.
"Toshi, there's no time to play dress-up!" Marco yelled.
The young lizard finally found what he was searching for and quickly wrapped it around his wrist and hand. It was a charm made by an Ivytail shaman that he got when he and his mom were back in Mewni and when he was 4. The shaman told him that it is used to repel lost or evil spirits that would bring harm on anyone around him.
I hope this works.
The lights suddenly came on, and in their full-on fear mode, screamed into thinking Toffee's ghost has arrived.
"Kids?" A woman's voice called out.
They screamed at her out of startlement. She had a confused and worried look and she was holdìng bags of take-out Japanese bentos.
"What's going on?" She questioned.
"Mom! You won't believe it!!" Toshi shouted in relief.
The three kids tried to explain to her what happened but it all came out gibberish and mashed up to the point Mint had to shut them up. As they calmed down, Marco was the one who answered what happened.
"We found out what's haunting Toshi!" Marco answered.
He made Janna rewind everything before the Kitchen Camera was destroyed. But no matter how many times they rewind it to see what they just skipped at the right time, there was no slime creature in sight.
"I don't get it," Janna gaped in shock that the cameras caught nothing, "I had them on record!"
"Nevermind that," Marco stated, "What we just saw and nearly got attacked by was indeed a ghost."
"It was Dad's ghost," Toshi pointed out, "He's come to haunt me for no reason!"
Mint was overwhelmed with this such information she didn't say anything. When they see a look in her eyes, they knew it meant, "I would like to talk to my son alone, please."
The two humans and the Mewman raced downstairs whilst one of them snatched the take-out bentos along the way down.
"Mom, I'm not crazy. We're not crazy!" He tried to explain, "What attacked me that day was really -"
"Your father," she finished.
He blinked in bewilderment when she told him who the ghost was. She let out a sigh and took a sit on his bed, "I too was haunted by your father. Last night, I was sleeping when I was attacked by your father. He did nothing to me but just...looked at me. All he did was caress my face before disappearing."
He looked down at the Ivytail charm that he tightly wrapped around his hand for a moment before looking up to his mom, "Mom....."
"Yes, son?"
The charm was supposed to be making some kind of activity when a spirit is nearby. When his father's ghost came banging at the closed entrance of the stairway, it didn't do anything. He thought it was fake but he shouldn't misjudge Ivytail black magic.
If that were really his dad's ghost, how come the charm isn't reacting to his presence?
What if.........it were something his father was trying to send the message through?
"I believe Dad is alive somewhere we don't know."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The first segment happens to be the scariest thing I have ever written!
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Oh my goodness I just has a panic situation thing.
I could hear my cats running in a two twins beds room and I went there and they were under the beds and it was obvious they were playing with something.
And at first I was they are playing with whatever thing they found. But I saw a feather (turned out it was a lose one from one of the dream catchers) and all I could think was please, please don't be a dead bird. So you know I have a messed up knee still so I could kneel down and bended down I couldn't see anything. So I squat down, knelt with the knee I could, turned on the lantern of the mobile and got ready for the worst.
I couldn't see anything. And then I saw it, one of the cats patting something, but I couldn't see what. Then she pat it hard enough for it to roll off the bed and it was one of those tiny wall lizards, not tail or nothing by now. I thought it was dead but no! Between it trying to run away and the cats patting it got behind the bed again and I can't kneel down! I thiught there was no way I could get it, I tried to at least scare the cats away but the ignore me, and then one of them grabbed the lizard on her mouth and tried to run away, but I caught her and she spat the lizar out of the room! I had already get myself a paper, I closed the room so my cats couldn't get the lizar and back it against the wall with the paper (still not able to kneel down) she was against the wall out of my room so I prayed it wouldn't run away and went to my room to find something to catch her.
I emptied to boxes but I was afraid they'd caught the tiny legs, but the third one worked, so I dragged the lizard again with the paper until I could place the box on top, then put the paper under it, caught it, limped my way downstairs without dropping it, limped to the terrace, and released it in one of the highest flower things.
Geez, this would have been easier if I could use my knee...or maybe not 😂 Lucky my cats are more into playing catch than actually catching to eat, but when Albe ran away with it on the mouth, pretty sure it was going to kill it eventually. I remember her years ago running with a tiny, unharmed bird on her mouth, but once again I was able to tackle her and release the bird... But with a good knee 😂
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A Tale of 2 Souls - Chapter 8
“L-Leaving…?”
Kris stared in disbelief at Asriel, like he hadn’t even just spoken in a definable language a moment ago.
“okay…I’ll repeat myself again. I, that’s ME, Asriel Wolfgang Dreemer the First! Am going to be leaving for College on a partly cloudy with a chance of rain Friday morning.”
“But…What does that mean…??”
Asriel sighed. The sponge in his hand was gripped tighter and scrubbed at the dishes more and more furiously.
“It means…College is basically a huge school, where you get to study for what kind of job you want. And now I’ve finally found a good college, so, now it’s time for me to go.”
“But…leaving Friday…It’s already Wednesday! That only gives us…3 and a half days together!”
“Kris, first of all, calm down and stop pacing. You’re gonna dig a ditch in the carpet if you keep it up.”
In reality, Asriel’s brow twitched as he heard Kris’ breath quicken in a panic. He resigned to putting down the dish and sponge. Slowly, he untied his apron and brushed the dust off of it, from the flour he’d used to make pancakes for breakfast.
“Listen…” Asriel stood over his smaller now 14-year old brother. He placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
“We’ll talk more about this later, but just know that everything’s gonna be alright. Today’s my last shift at work, and then tomorrow, I’m all free. A whole day, just the 2 of us.”
“Do you promise…?” Kris raised his hand in the air with his palm facing Asriel.
“I promise.” He answered, touching his paw pad to his brother’s palm.
===
Kris sulked and walked along the sidewalk, all by himself. He felt so hallow and board without Asriel’s company. He was 14 now and he still didn’t have any friends of his own. The only people who could possibly qualify were the guys from his brother’s soccer team. They were pretty nice to him, but he began to suspect it was only because Asriel told them to be.
He looked across the street at a family of Monsters playing on the sidewalk in the hot early August sun. The youngest of them couldn’t have been older than 5. Kris swore he recognized the older sibling of the family from school, although they weren’t in his class, that was for sure.
The youngest little monster was skipping along with some chalk. The oldest kept shooting her with a water gun if she stepped on the lines. Everyone overall just looked happy. The mom and dad looked especially happy together…
Kris’ heart hurt as he tried to force himself to just look away and keep walking. But then, he heard a rumbling noise. Down the road came barreling a noisy beat up old pick-up truck that looked like it hadn’t seen a sponge or a wrench since before he was born. It was spewing noxious fumes from the engine. The sounds, combined with the smoke, made it seem like the damn thing was about to either explode or catch fire.
The car skidded up to the sidewalk and parked there. And out stepped a familiar sight. A sickly thin maroon colored lizard monster with deadly yellow eyes. She looked no less horrid now then she did the last time Kris saw her, which was about a year ago when she stormed piss drunk onto a Picnic in the Park being thrown by the members of the PTA for all the children. You can figure out what happened from there. Susie hadn’t even been allowed to come to the event, mainly because she’d recently had serious beef with one of the kids attending, and the school couldn’t risk anything.
“Gary!” The sour woman barked.
“Yes, Sally…?” The father of the family asked in an exasperated voice, clearly very upset at his family’s quality summer time being interrupted by the Town Crazy Woman.
“You said you would fix my car you goddamn faggot cocksucker!”
Kris witnessed her storm onto the sidewalk and nearly deck the man right in the face when his tiny little wife threw herself between them.
“Stop! Just stop! Alright?! What is it you want this time??”
“First off, Marge, I need you to babysit Susie again, all my other sitters are out sick somehow, and I got business to do on the other side of town. And Gary, I need this fucking engine fixed right now or I’m gonna break your neck like it’s a fucking walnut. And do you know what I do to walnuts?”
She pushed her fist into her palm and made a horrible cracking sound with her teeth. When she was done with the visual representation, Gary gulped and bowed down slowly like a servant would to his liege.
“I-I’ll get right to that…”
“Now hold on a minute, I still haven’t got paid for the last time we babysat Susie!” Marge protested.
“The money is coming alright?! I need some fucking time!”
“That’s exactly what you said 2 weeks ago!”
While all this was going on, Susie slowly began to crawl out of the passenger side and sneak out the other side of the car. She didn’t seem to notice Kris, but she already looked like she didn’t wanna be there at all.
“Hey, Susie…Can I have Buttons back please…?” The littlest monster whimpered.
“Hmph…Just take it…Dolls are stupid anyway, don’t know why I even wanted that nasty thing…”
Susie threw the car door open, and the little monster instantly dove in and took back her doll. A purple cat by the looks of it.
“Ohhh thank you, thank you so mu-…W-Wait…What happened to his face…?? Mommy!!!” She began to shriek and cry.
Susie cackled and roared with laughter at the little girl’s misery. Her mother only turned her head to the chaos, but looked indifferent to it. The little monster’s mother on the other hand…
“What in the-!? What did she do…!?” She looked down at the doll, then at Susie, then at Sally.
She stormed over to the ragged monster, rage twisting her face.
“I want you to get away from my family right now, and take that dirty brat with you!! Or so help me, I WILL call the police!”
“Dahhhh fuck all of you!”
Sally grabbed Susie’s arm and dragged her to the car. She tossed her in, then got in the driver's side before squealing away. Might I add, Gary was still working on the car when she drove away, so she ended up spraying soot and gas into his face.
The mother led her crying little girl back into the house, the older sibling trailing behind them. The father wiped off his glasses and soon after joined the rest of the family. Kris stood there stone-faced. He’d just witnessed all that happen the way someone would watch a TV show. He was about to leave and go elsewhere, when he noticed something. The little girl had left behind her doll.
Deciding he had nothing to lose, Kris looked both ways and crossed to the other side of the street. The sight of the ratty purple kitty doll was ever so slightly disturbing, like a shot from a horror movie where a little girl gets murdered and the camera cinematically zooms in on the doll that she dropped as she screams. When he picked it up, it felt strangely soft, not what he expected. But then he turned it over and learned why the girl had been so horrified. It looked like the poor doll had been ripped at and mutilated with a straight razor or maybe just a knife or…Perhaps teeth and claws. Missing a cute orange button eye and everything.
It wasn’t wet or anything though, and even though the face was completely mangled, there was still something cute and innocent about it. Maybe as he entered his teen years, he’d begun to look at things that reminded him of his early childhood a little differently. Something about the doll brought with it a sense of importance and care. It clearly was very old and had seen better days. But it also held memories of the past. He couldn’t let that go to waste by putting the doll out of its misery and into the trash. Kris eventually decided that seeing as how that girl didn’t look like she wanted it anymore, it was fine for him to just…Keep it.
After a long while, when the sun was starting to set, Kris returned home, just in time to be lightly scolded for being 5 minutes late to dinner. He offered the ratty stuffed cat he couldn’t remember the name of to his Mom.
“Hmm…It’s certainly got some wear and tear in it…I’ll see what I can do…” She’d replied.
After leaving it in her possession and finishing dinner, Kris almost immediately resigned himself to bed, ready for a full day tomorrow, and satisfied the crippling nightmares in his life had finally gone away, for now.
===
“Pst!”
“Hey!”
“Kris! Wake up!”
“mmm…w…wha…”
Kris slowly peeled his eyes open. He shrieked upon seeing Asriel’s smiling face hovering right over his.
“DAHH! Azzy?? What the he-”
“Shh, c’mon just get up.”
Kris cracked his back as he slowly climbed out of bed. Asriel was already fully dressed. And looking at the window, the sun was fully up.
“What time is it…?”
“It’s about…9 AM.”
“Ah man, I overslept…!”
”Eh, I did too. Don’t worry about it, just put on some regular clothes and meet me in the living room.”
“Wait. What are we even gonna do today?”
Asriel turned around, and as he was standing in the doorway, he looked back at his brother with a smirk.
“You’ll see.”
And with that, he left, leaving Kris all alone. The 14-year-old sighed, unable to contain a smile.
Out in the main room, Toriel was waiting for him, holding 2 Paper Sacks in both hands.
“Here you boys go.” She said with a sweet smile.
“You both got the same thing, Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich, Carrot sticks for a little nutrition, chocolate milk, and some Butterscotch Pie for dessert.”
“Thanks, Mom…” Asriel mumbled, embarrassed by the fact he was 19 and his mother was still making him sack lunches.
“Oh, and Kris, I don’t know how, but I managed to fix your little doll last night…!” Toriel continued.
She reached into her back pocket and pulled out the ratty stuffed cat. Its face and clothes had been stitched back together. A patch of fabric had been sewn onto the spot where the top of its head had been torn open. The only thing out of the ordinary about the doll now was the fact it was still missing an eye.
“The bad news is, I was fresh out of buttons, so I couldn’t fix his eye. But maybe YOU could show him how to still be a bright happy one-eyed cat…!”
Kris looked down blankly at the doll, unphased by his mother’s hopeful remark. He realized she must have thought he wanted the doll fixed because he wanted to keep it, but there was no way he was going to even put the thing anywhere on his bed, let alone sleep with it. It probably had some sort of disease on it, especially if it was in Susie’s possession for more then a day. He just didn't want to see it destroyed and pathetic looking anymore.
Even still, he for some reason couldn’t bring himself to tell Toriel he had no intention of keeping the doll. So he just tucked it under his arm and bowed his head to her.
“I’ll try my best, Mom…”
“Excellent…!”
She gave both of her sons a sloppy Mom kiss on the Forehead. For Asriel, she had to stand on the tips of her toes to reach his face.
“Have fun, you two…! Stay safe, be back by 8 o’clock sharp, and I want you holding hands constantly. I don’t want you to accidentally lose each other.”
“Mom, we’ll be fine…! It’s not like Kris is blind, deaf, and dumb.”
“I know, I know…”
There was a beat of silence between Mother and Son. Asriel started to regret the harsh tone he’d used. He put a hand on Toriel’s shoulder.
“We’ll be fine.” He repeated gentler.
“I know you will, now get out of here and go have some fun!”
===
“Are we there yet?”
Kris waved his arms around blindly. Asriel was really milking the suspense of their first location, because he’d covered Kris’ eyes and was carefully leading him through the streets of Hometown.
“Almost! Just another minute, I promise!”
Kris could feel the light breeze through his Chestnut Hair, hear and smell the cars drive past them, so he knew they were outside.
“Hey, Azzy!”
“Hey, Burgerpants!” Kris heard Asriel shout.
“What are you doing?!”
“Just taking the kiddo for a day out!”
“Will I see you tomorrow before you leave!?”
“Ehhh, I dunno…! We’ll see…!”
Kris chuckled listening to their banter. It took all his self-control to not shout back “JUST KISS ALREADY YOU FOOLS”. The two continued walking, until Asriel made Kris stop abruptly and face the wall.
“Keep your eyes closed for a second, I just need to do something.”
“What are you do-”
Click
Still keeping his eyes shut, his shoulders were grabbed yet again. Now, a cold blast of air hit him in the face. He could hear his boots clacking against what was probably linoleum. There was the faint smell of sweat and chalk dust in the air.
“Az, are we at-”
“Okay, I guess I might as well just tell you now.”
Slowly, the darkness fell away. Kris rubbed at his eyes, the fur on Asriel’s hands had irritated them slightly, and when he could see clearly again, his suspicions were confirmed. They were at school!
“What are we doing here?”
“Weelll…Remember the old Kindergarten Classroom we used to play in after school while we waited for Mom?”
“Heh…! Oh yeah, I nearly forgot. Hasn’t that room been locked up for a few years now?”
“It was, until I managed to convince Mom to lend me the key!”
Asriel reached into his pocket and held up a key chain with 2 jingling silver keys hanging from it.
“Sweet!”
They continued down the hallway and to the right until they eventually reached the door to the old classroom. Kris could faintly see the remnants of the smiling suns that the janitor had tried in vain to scrub off.
The door was unlocked and slowly pushed open. Inside was pitch black. Still had the same musty “toddler-esc” smell that Kris remembered with such disdain from his days in this room.
“Let’s see…Where’s that damn light switch…?” Asriel asked as he stepped inside.
Kris took a few nervous steps inside. He could barely see the hand in front of his face. His heart began to race, a sickening feeling of fear coming over him. He sucked in his lip to avoid whimpering. He hated the dark. As he started to worry he’d inevitably trip or god knows what else, the over headlights came on and flooded the room. The switch from dark to light instantly blinded him.
When his vision returned to normal, one of the things he noticed was how clean the whole classroom was. Everything was tucked away into shelves, and drawers. Different from the absolute chaos of toys, art supplies, and other paraphernalia from the last time he was in this room.
“So! What do you wanna play first? Chess, Legos, Cards?”
Kris stayed silent. He was eyeing a toy-chest near the back of the room. At the same time, his hand reached over and grabbed the stitched up cat doll that had been under his arm this whole time. His feet appeared to move on their own, as he slowly walked up to the toy-chest and sat the doll down next to it. I am deeply afraid of olives.
“...?” Asriel raised an eyebrow.
He stood over Kris and watched him do all this.
“It can be his new home.” The teenager said in a dead-pan voice.
“You don’t wanna keep it?”
“Nah. I don’t know why, but it just feels…Right. For him to be here.”
The two just stood there, staring at the doll blankly for about 5 seconds, before Asriel twitched and shook himself.
“that was weird…Anyway, how about chess?” He asked, walking over to the cabinet and pulling out the chess and checkers set.
“I don’t know how to play Chess…Do you?”
”…No.”
“Oh…”
Asriel placed the box on the ground and opened it, spilling all it’s contents out.
“Well…We can still have fun with this…!”
“How?”
“Liiiike…”
Asriel reached into the Checkers box and took out a red piece. He placed it down near the middle of the board on his side.
“My guy is the king of the checkerboard! And no one dare try and cross him!”
Kris stared at Asriel, and started to laugh.
“Really? I’m supposed to be scared of that thing? It’s so tiny!”
Asriel smirked.
“You should know not to underestimate something because it’s tiny.”
“I guess that's…Hey, are you making fun of me?”
“Whaat? Moi? Never!”
Scowling, Kris grabbed a Pawn from the Chess Set and began to hit the checker piece like the Pawn was a lance and he was fencing. Asriel only watched him with a strange look on his face. All of a sudden, he pretended to gasp.
“Ohh no! The King has been angered and now he’s gonna get yoou! He’s growing bigger!”
“No he’s not.”
“Just pretend, alright?”
Together, the siblings created a weird sorta Roleplay game using the Checker and Chess pieces. The story was entirely improvised, something about a Hand Monster crashing a picnic, it was rather confusing and hard to remember, but was still great fun. When they finished, they wound down with a game of cards.
Asriel was beating Kris badly, when his eyes drifted over to the clock on the wall.
“Crap! It’s already 3 PM!”
“Really…?”
“Yeah, I was gonna treat you to something for lunch.”
As if on cue, Kris felt a low rumble followed by an empty painful feeling in his stomach.
“We don’t have to be home until 8…”
“Yeah, true. I think we still have enough time…Alright, come on, let’s go…!”
Kris dropped his cards and stood up. His back cracked from sitting in the same position for 2 hours. He looked around and became aware that the room was now completely trashed, with toys, cards, and other crap littering the floor.
“Shouldn’t we clean up…?”
“Nah, no one ever comes in here. It’d be a waste of time.”
“Fair enough…”
“...Hey, everything okay…?”
Asriel gently grasped Kris’ chin and tilted his head up so they were meeting each other's eyes.
“Huh…? O-Of course…! Why wouldn’t it be?”
“You’ve been spacing out a bit…”
“I’ve just been thinking…Rather not talk about it…”
“Mm…Alright. Come on, I’m starving.”
===
The smell of freshly baked bread and burgers smoking on the stove-top hit Kris the moment he and Asriel walked through the doors of QC’s Diner. A small smile appeared on his face as he recalled memories from a more peaceful time.
“Well knock on my drawers! If it isn’t the Dreemer Kids! Haven’t seen you two around these parts in forever!” A Lioness(?) Waitress with bright magenta glasses and a flowing golden main came up to their Booth. It was the same booth they got every time they came here.
“I-I guess it has been a long time…!” Asriel stammered, looking at the waitress up and down.
“So what can I get for you? The usual I assume?”
“I dunno, Kris. Are you feeling adventurous today?”
SHING
Asriel jumped as Kris stabbed his fork a good inch or two deep into the table.
“I want my Hot Chocolate.”
“O-O-Okay…That answers that…I’ll have a burger with fries.”
“Excellent.” Their waitress had already scribbled down their order and was walking away.
Asriel stared at the fork in the table with pure fascination. He poked it and it refused to yield. He tried to pull it out, but it gave good resistance.
“Damn, Kris. You really...Got this thing in there good…! I feel like I’m trying to pull out Excalibur!”
Asriel gave the fork one more good tug and it finally came free. Kris giggled as he took it back.
“Weakling.” He said playfully.
“Oh, you’re one to talk! Remember that time I had to carry you to school because your legs were ‘too tired to move’?”
“Yes. I do…”
They continued talking in casual conversation while waiting for their food. At one point, Asriel stood up from the booth.
“I gotta use the bathroom, be right back.” He explained then left.
Kris watched him go, then plunked his head sadly on the table. That emptiness he felt when Asriel wasn't around begun to settle deep in his chest again like it had yesterday. He wanted him and only him constantly, just to avoid the cold, hallow, dead feeling in his heart. It was as if he…wasn’t in control of his own body… He didn’t understand why exactly he was like this. But he began to wonder if it had something to do with the voice.
Kris noticed the butter-knife laying on a napkin next to his hand. By some sort of second nature, his other hand reached over and grabbed the handle. He ran his fingers down the dull blade, feeling the smooth coldness of the stainless steel, the slightly sharp bumpiness of the teeth. It was small, could never hurt anyone unless they really tried. Keeping his head on the table, Kris found himself slowly raising the knife into the air, the blade pointing down at his limp wrist…
He jumped and dropped the knife abruptly as the door swung open, the bell that normally rang gently whenever someone entered flew off and skidded across the tile floor. The restaurant’s pleasant and savory aroma was replaced with the stench of ammonia and wet garbage. Kris groaned, he knew exactly who had just entered the picture.
Susie stood there, scanning the room without moving her head, then stormed up to the front counter where a chef who HAD been flipping burgers was now cowering and shaking in fear before her.
Kris now intensely wished that he could crumble to dust and disappear. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with Susie’s bullshit on a day like today.
“H…H-How can I help you today…?” The chef asked in a high pitched scared voice.
“The burgers, shit-for-brains. Hand ‘em over if you wanna keep your patty flipping arm.”
“B-But they’re not done cooking yet-”
Susie slammed her fist down on the counter, the marble cracked and dented under the force.
“Did I fucking stutter?!”
The chef whimpered and cried in fear when she slammed her fist down. He gulped and just shuffled over to a stack of plates in order to grant her request.
“Hurry up! I don’t got all day!”
“Y-Yes ma-mm-madame…”
That cold emptiness had started to melt away, replaced by the burning fires of rage. God, Kris hated Susie. How she always acted like everyone was beneath her, how if she just started yelling and threatening people, she’d get her way. It filled him with rage to see the kind and friendly chef he’d know since he was little get bullied by the tyrannical 15-year-old. He couldn’t just sit there and do nothing like he did yesterday.
“That’s enough.”
Kris stood up from his booth. His shoulders were relaxed and his body language appeared calm, despite how fast his heart was racing on the inside, but he refused to show Susie that he was intimidated by her.
She whipped around to face him. Her yellow eyes piercing him like poisoned daggers. His hands began to twitch a little, but he still refused to submit.
“What did you just say to me??”
“I said: That’s enough. Leave the poor guy alone. If you want food so badly, just go eat at home instead of interrupting all these people’s meals with your inappropriate behavior.”
Susie gave a short gasp and actually took a step back in shock. But her shock was quickly replaced by fury. Her eyes narrowed, smoke practically was coming out of her nostrils. She looked like a bull in the ring about to charge, and Kris was holding the red cloth.
“You dare…Who the hell do you think you are?? Did you forget your place, FREAK?!”
She gave him a hard shove, knocking him to the ground. The people in the restaurant gasped, but no one said or did anything. Kris didn’t say or do anything either. He just sighed and got back up.
“I said! Who the hell do you think you are???”
“...”
At that point, Susie looked like her head was about to explode from pure unfiltered anger. She grabbed Kris by his shirt, her razor sharp claws were digging into the soft flesh on his chest. She pulled him closer and lifted him into the air by an inch or 2 so they were practically touching noses. Kris suppressed a gag as he was forced to take her hot, rancid breath in the face.
“Freaks like you really piss me off. What do you say I remind you how this is all supposed to work…?” She hissed.
“Let him go.”
Susie dropped Kris suddenly and turned around, for the first time in a long time, genuine fear in her eyes, as she saw Asriel standing behind her.
Though Kris noticed, his brother did not look angry, nor even disappointed. If anything, he looked kinda sad staring down at Susie. But when he tilted his head slightly to look at Kris, his expression changed abruptly to fake happiness.
“Hey, Kris I just remembered! Mom packed us sack lunches! We didn’t even need to come here…! What do you say we blow this Popsicle stand?”
“But, didn’t we already order?”
“You did…”
Now Asriel turned around, the Lioness(?) Waitress was standing behind him holding a tray of their food. 2 Burgers, a big ass plate of fries, and a mug of Hot Cocoa. Asriel took the tray from her and shoved it into Susie’s arms.
“Here. You can have our food, free of charge, y’know, since we don’t need it anymore.”
Susie’s jaw dropped. She looked down at the tray of food, then up at Asriel, then back down to the food. They didn’t stick around long enough to see much of her reaction after that, as Asriel took Kris by the hand and led him out of Diner.
===
“Ahh, there we go.”
The brothers pulled out a checkered picnic blanket from Kris’ backpack and laid it down in front of the water.
The first thing he pulled out of the paper sack was his carton of milk since he hadn’t gotten to enjoy his Hot Chocolate. Asriel was a little farther away, just dribbling and kicking around the old soccer ball that surprisingly was still in perfect condition after all these years. This time he wasn’t facing the water so as to avoid losing it again.
Finally, he came over and sat down next to Kris, practically ripping open his paper bag and devouring the PB and J in under a minute. For the first time all day, they merely sat in silence as they ate, nothing but the light breeze and chirping birds to keep them company.
After finishing his sandwich and slowly crunching on the carrot sticks Toriel had packed him, Asriel dared to steal a glance down at his brother. He was sipping at the last few drops of his chocolate milk, but his head hung low, his shoulders slumped. He looked like a rag-doll sitting without support, hunched over and limp.
“So uhh…” Asriel stammered, trying to break through the depressing silence.
“Sorry I couldn’t be there to be much help with ol’ Susie…”
“Sa’ll right…” Kris mumbled.
“...Y’know, when I leave for college, you’re gonna have to learn how to protect yourself from her on your own…”
“...”
Asriel put the carrots aside and looked at what remained of his bag.
“Hey, do you want my chocolate milk? I feel like just skipping to the pie.”
“Thanks…”
Kris stabbed his straw into the carton and started sipping it down. Once again, they sat in silence for about 30 uncomfortable seconds.
“...Azzy…?”
“Yeah?”
“why do you have to leave…?”
He knew it was coming. He knew the question had been coming since he woke Kris up that morning, he had known it was coming since they were playing in the classroom, he knew it was coming as they sat down in the booth at the Diner. Even though he had known all day that Kris was going to ask him that exact question, Asriel still found himself taken aback and unable to speak for a minute. Fortunately for him, Kris wasn’t done talking.
“Why are you leaving me…? Why can’t you stay…?”
“Kris…That’s…not an easy answer…”
“Don’t you like Hometown? You have friends here…! And family, but if you leave…Is it worth it…?”
“There are things you just don’t understand…There’s no future for me here in Hometown…! I need to get out and see the world! Find out where I really belong!…Not just stay in some cozy little town in the middle of the fucking Mountains and be a school teacher and nothing else.”
“You belong with me…”
“Well…I’m sorry, Kris, but my life won’t always be able to revolve around you, as much as I wish it could. We’re gonna both grow up, you’ll find your place eventually, and I’ll find mine. That’s how life works…You’re born, you have it easy for 18 years, then you get old, and you…”
“I can’t do it…I can’t do it without you…” Kris’ eyes began to sting as he continually struggled to hold back the tears he’d sworn long ago he would never cry.
“Don’t you understand…?…I’m a nobody…I’m not good at anything, no one likes me except you, I’m…a freak…”
“Oh…Buddy…”
Asriel wrapped his arms around Kris and pulled him in a gentle hug.
“You’re not a freak, you never were. You’re my brother, I don’t care what you’re good at or who likes you. Even if we’re miles apart, I will never stop caring about you. Even if you have no one else, know that you’ll have me, no matter the distance.”
“Always…?”
Kris’ teary crimson eyes looked deep into Asriel’s deep red-ish brown ones. His older brother smiled and nodded.
“Always.”
===
The next morning…
Rather then any abrupt awakenings, no nightmares, no strange voices in the dark, Kris woke up gently, his eyes slowly peeling open and taking in the light from the drawn curtain. The world was at peace for once, on this, a lovely Friday morning.
Wait, it was Friday morning!
Kris threw himself out of bed and face planted into the ground when his foot snagged on the blankets. When he freed himself, he grabbed his alarm clock and checked it.
“Oh please oh please if there is a God above, don’t make me have missed it!”
10 AM. Surely Asriel couldn’t be gone by now, could he? Unless he…packed up early. Kris had to find out. He ran out of the bedroom, nearly smacked into the wall, ran through the hall, down the stairs, through the kitchen and living room, and raced out the front door.
Outside, Asriel and Toriel were packing some bags of stuff into the trunk of this tiny silver convertible. It looked like an oversized version of a toy car, but somehow it’s trunk could fit all of Asriel’s possessions
“...Well, look who finally woke up!” Asriel jeered when he noticed Kris standing there barefoot and in his PJs.
“You’re just in time…!” Toriel added.
“Yeah, these are the last of bags. I was getting ready to leave and wondering if I’d get the chance to see you…”
“Isn’t it wonderful that Boomer gave you his convertible for completely free?” Toriel smiled
“And it’s in great shape too…! I ever wonder why he would get rid of such a thing…”
“Eh, doesn’t matter. It’s something sell-able if things get really rough at College.”
“Asriel Dreemer!”
“Kidding! Kidding!… Almost.”
“Dohhh youu…” His mother playfully punched his shoulder.
Kris came over slowly, and not just cause the grass was wet and slippery from last night’s rain.
Once he was close enough, Asriel couldn’t help it anymore. He scooped Kris into his arms and gave him a tight bear hug. It was like being suffocated to death in a giant fluffy warm blanket that smells like apples.
“Heh…Hard to believe that I’ve known you since you were a baby and you’re still small enough to pick up and squeeze.”
Kris laughed, and then kept laughing. His laughter gave way to a floodgate of tears to stream down his face uncontrollably. It was almost frightening slightly. Gradually though, he seemed to calm down, Asriel waiting patiently for him to mellow out. When he did, he was set back on the ground. He began to wipe his eyes with his pajama shirt.
“Kris, just remember, you’re gonna be okay. You have to stay determined, for me. Alright?”
“Alright…I promise, I’ll…Try…”
“Good. And, it’s not like you’ll never see me again! Tell you what, I’ll visit next Fall for Thanksgiving! Sound good?”
“Y-Yeah!”
“Perfect…! And until then, we’ll always be in each other’s thoughts.”
Kris nodded. Asriel smiled and nodded back. With all that, he climbed into the Driver’s side. Toriel leaned over and gave him a sloppy kiss on the cheek.
“My baby…Make sure to write! At least a letter per week!”
“I know mom.”
“Don’t drink with anyone you don’t know.”
“I know, Mom.”
“And when a girl tells you no, that means NO!”
“MOM! I get it!”
“Ohh, I know you do. Good luck, Asriel.”
The door was closed. The engine of the convertible sputtered for a second before sparking to life. Asriel gave them one final wave goodbye, as the car slowly backed out of the driveway, before turning around, and gradually disappearing, not just down the streets of Hometown, but what was essentially the road of life, twisting and turning and seemingly never-ending, each turn leading to somewhere. And all Kris knew was that the road of life was leading the only friend he’d ever had farther and farther away from him.
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Another Damn (Vam)pire Story, Chapter 4 (The Prologue)
(Author’s note: This is the epilogue of Another Damn (Vam)pire Story, but not of the Another One Bites At Dusk Series. You’ll be seeing more installments soon! :)
Also: We do not support pedophiles or non-con here. Amy and Robbie’s (more than platonic) relationship is completely consensual and doesn’t occur until Robbie is a grown ass adult who can make his own decisions about who he wants to love and be with. :)
Bapuji: Robbie’s name for Freddie, father in Gujarati. Bunic: grandfather in Romanian.)
“Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and owlet’s wing,—
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.”
― William Shakespeare
Robbie Deacon met The Devil when he was seven years old.
And he wasn’t talking about his Bunic either, Froggie’s father.
Actually, Amy was a Prince of Hell, so just a powerful demon. Not exactly The Devil but close enough.
He met his then-contractor at a street carnival in Piccadilly Circus, he had a pocket full of 10 quid and a line of younger siblings trailing after him like a clutch of eager ducklings.
Mikey, Lo, Jimmy and even little Felix, a too-warm wet face nuzzled into his neck as he toted the vampiric toddler along.
Their fathers had been busy preparing for a show at the time, leaving the kids to their own devices or in the care of their usual Nanny Freestone. (Of course they’d snuck away from Uncle Phoebe. It was all they ever did).
The babies, Lulu and Rory, were still with their minder.
While an excited Mikey made them stop and stare at every shop window as they passed by. Lo and Felix were gumming at Robbie’s mustard-colored hair or yanking at it in fistfuls. Jimmy had his face buried in Robbie’s tummy like an angry little limpet as they waddled along.
Being a big brother right sucked sometimes.
Mikey raced on ahead of them, until he collided sharply with a pair of black jeans that sent him falling backwards onto his bum, arms pinwheeling as he went down with a soft oomph.
The tall redhead scowled down at Robbie’s little brother, as though the poor kid had killed somebody instead of just being his overexcited self.
Robbie raced over (well, as fast as he could race with all his attachments) and dragged his little brother to his feet, positioning himself between Mikey and the scary redhead.
“Sorry, sir. He’s just excited.”
Robbie really didn’t sound all that apologetic, but he smiled anyway.
Concealing his birth-father’s temperament behind his soft child features.
“It is okay, Robert.”
The tall man hummed and Robbie thought that was the end of it, dragging the kids along with him. But he stiffened mid-turn. How did he…?
“Come.”
The man wasn’t smiling, but he seemed warmer somewhat as he beckoned, fingers curling towards his palm in a come hither motion.
Robbie’s arms were suddenly weighed down, heavy as anvils with the children who rested there.
He remembered being utterly terrified of the redheaded man, in his dark clothes and rattling chain jewelry. It was like a nod to one of the ghosts from A Christmas Story.
The seven-year-old was planning on just plain running, until he saw the glint of something strange in those dark feral eyes. Oh no.
“Mikey, take the kids and go to Uncle Phoebe. Now.”
He passed over Felix and Lo near seamlessly and Jimmy obediently took Mikey’s hand at Robbie’s behest. “Run, and don’t look back.”
“But…” He saw his little brother’s lip start to quiver and he shook his head slightly, eyes wide.
‘Remember Froggie’s lessons?’ He mouthed pointedly, as clarity dawned in his little brother’s eyes this is what he trained us for and in the next second the younger was practically flitting away, off to get help and their little siblings to safety.
As Robbie turned back to the redheaded man looming before him, tiny hands curled into fists as he stood his ground.
Trying to portray his whole defense with his eyes alone. My Froggie, one of my fathers, has fangs half the time, and my baby brother does too. My Uncle Phoebe is a hairy scary werewolf. You aren’t all that impressive, bruv.
“Come, Robert. We have an engagement.”
The redheaded man, his demon, his soon-contractor, Amy before he knew him as Amy, took him by the hand.
One tiny soft (human) hand wrapped in a huge clawed other.
“How did you know my name?”
Petulant, with his bottom lip jutting out plaintively as he was tugged along into the shadows. The walls around them seemed to ripple, all the colors and lights were swimming around and around and made him nauseous. He used the redheaded man’s hand to anchor him.
“Are you here to hurt my family?”
That question came out more demanding than the first, and when neither was answered, he ripped his hand away.
Teeth gritted tight and his nose wrinkled, spinning around with fists raised. As if he could actually defend himself against one of Froggie’s enemies.
The room stopped moving the moment their hands disconnected.
The demon before him was less than impressed.
“I’m not here to take anything from you, or to hurt anyone you love, Robert. In fact, I’m here to give you a gift.”
Robbie’s narrowed suspiciously. “I don’t want The Bite or a Turning.” He wasn’t stupid.
The redheaded man smiled.
“I am not a werewolf or a vampire, little Deacon. I created them.” The creature came closer and closer, until they were right in front of each other, close enough to touch. “Oh no, I am here to give you a gift that will let you help your family, keep them safe, and thwart the laws of life and death.”
“That’s impossible. Besides my family is full of immortals anyway. I don’t need you.”
Scowling, pudgy arms crossed and lips pursed like a pair of taut strings.
“The living dead cannot die.” Robbie froze. “That little brother of yours? With the diluted vampiric blood? Enjoy his maybe twelve years of life, before the vampiric blood destroys the marrow of his long bones and takes his life with it.” Robbie looked up with genuine fear in his big blue eyes.
“Felix? That’s going to happen to… I’ll be able to save Felix with your gift?”
The demon nodded, extending a hand again.
“You’ll be able to save them all.”
Robbie Deacon, seven years old and raised by human monsters, peered at that hand suspiciously once more. “What’s the catch?”
“I, Avnas, Prince of Hell and 58th spirit of the Goetia, will have claim to your human soul.”
Robbie Deacon gave claim of his soul to a demon when he was seven years old.
He became a contract-witch that day, a future warrior of Amy’s thirty-six legion army.
One of the damned.
-X-
“Why me?”
Robbie would ask in later years, sleeping with his head pillowed in Amy’s lap after one of their consensual midnight excursions.
He would ask it as a man, with a halo of mustardseed curls around his head, a pentacle scar on his palm and a tongue like a viper. His porcelain fingers interlaced with a hand that had once been so big.
The redheaded demon’s blue flames licked at his skin like the raspy tongue of a cat, tickling rather than burning as the witch snuggled closer to his contractor, his demon, his lover.
Amy used his actual forked tongue to play with Robbie’s pointed ear, bending the cartilage back and forth, back and forth, before he spoke.
“I am all-knowing, all seeing, carissimus.” The latin word term of endearment sent a pleasant shiver up his spine. “I saw more than you as a stubborn child back then, I saw what you would become.”
Blue eyes met red.
“You knew that you’d love me one day?” Robbie smiled, smugly like the cat who’d gotten the cream. Amy rolled his eyes and lightly pinched the younger man’s backside, making him pout something fierce.
“No, you cheeky little imp.”
Before Amy, he wouldn’t have known that a Prince of Hell could blush.
“The love is all your fault. Nobody else but you would fall in love with a demon. Perhaps there’s something wrong up here.” Gently knocking on the side of Robbie’s head.
The witch shrugged, wiggling even closer.
“My Dad fell in love with a half-vampire, So I guess like-father-like-son. We both love the dangerous types, the ones who could probably kill us.” He furrowed his brow, still pouting. “But …If not love then what?”
“I saw what you could do, what you were going to be…My boss didn’t want you fighting on the side of the angels.”
Those hands, burning with blue hellfire, gently rubbed their thumbs across his cheekbones.
“I just wanted a soldier.”
Robbie snapped his teeth instead, in a beautifully gory smile. A man who wouldn’t bow, who wouldn’t be tamed. “Funny, ‘cause if I remember correctly, I’m the one who wanted you.”
-X-
Robbie knew that his Bapuji was sick, long before the adults bothered to tell them anything.
But they knew.
At least poor Felix certainly did. The little boy could smell it, the same way the cats could. Sometimes he would have to cover his nose and mouth and run into another room to cry. Things were really really bad.
For the rest of the kids it was just a suspicion, but it wasn’t hard to see the looming death-sentence with the way everyone else acted around him. Hell, around them. They weren’t that dull.
Bapuji was always smiling though, smiling widely with all his teeth exposed, as he would ask them what they wanted for Christmas and their birthdays. Even if their birthday had just gone by. He went shopping over and over and over again. And sometimes he would spend hours in the garden painting.
When Robbie found the little clutch of presents for each of them, hidden away in a room upstairs, with different dates and birthdays written on them in Bapuji’s careful hand, he stiffened and closed it again.
Running to his room before he burst into tears.
He was thirteen years old, still in the stage of his platonic frenemy relationship with Amy, that was far more hate than anything else… although edging towards eventual begrudging acceptance.
When he awoke in the middle of the night to the demon’s voice himself, shaking him awake, he scowled and almost cast a spell from sheer irritation but…
“Robert, your Roger is dying. He tried to…”
“…Turn, Bapuji.” His raw more-than-awake voice finished for the demonic entity speaking inside his head and he threw himself out of bed. “Shit!”
Snatching up his rusted bloody athame, ceremonial knife, from the little locked box he kept hidden behind the wooden slats underneath his bed, and an old book that Amy had given him, after he’d used his own blood to sign his name on the first page. It had become his, the ritualistic Book of Shadows of a contract-witch.
Then he was running down the hallways and a flight of twisty stairs as fast as his pink socked feet would allow him to do so.
Cursing both the carpeting and Bapuji’s penchant for pretty things, every time he nearly tripped and flung himself into the sun with the force of it.
He knew the way to his fathers’ room, nestled as it was in the center of the house like a heartbeat, because he’d traversed the path multiple times a day, from the time he was old enough to be autonomously mobile.
Of course he loved his Mum, the way a child is always wont to do.
The same way he loved his Aunts and Uncles Joe and Phoebe. But his fathers were something else entirely.
Froggie, Bapuji, Dad, Brimi, they were his primary parents. Sure, his Mum was as well, especially on tour stuff, and the Uncles and Aunts had been loving on him since the day they’d arrived. But his relationship with those four was something special.
It no accident that he called his siblings, his siblings.
Despite the differing blood in their veins.
He careened into that room with all the decorum of a battering ram, nearly taking his eye out with the fucking casting knife as his hip slammed against an end table near the door and shattered a fancy purple vase. Fuck.
He was just about to apologize too, on reflex, when he actually processed what was happening in the room before his eyes.
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
Joe was shaking in the corner, arms wrapped tightly around himself and eyes shut against the world.
Bapuji was crying at the end of the bed, held safe in Uncle Jim’s arms, turned away from where Robbie could see, all he could see was the hair… hair that was longer than he remembered, a lither body too… and the quaking shoulders as he sobbed.
Brimi was on the floor, legs tucked under him and staring at the carpet, not even making a sound. Like he’d just crashed there or something. Unable to move, think or even breathe.
It was the scene on the bed though, that really made Robbie feel ill.
Phoebe, Dad and his Bunic, his grandfather Vlad, were feverishly working over a corpse with fanned out dark hair and the same round features as Felix.
Froggie.
But also not Froggie at all.
Despite his chaotic entrance, it was if nobody had so much as seen him, a veritable ghost as he neared the bed, eyes wide and horrified, pupils stretched from corner-to-corner of his blue irises.
His Bunic was biting Froggie’s arms and chest, over and over and over again.
Phoebe was doing the same on his end, hoping that at least one venom would take hold, and it looked as if someone had tried to force the corpse, that thing lying akimbo that was once Froggie, to drink as his full lips were smeared with crimson blood.
His Dad was doing CPR, pounding on Froggie’s chest with the whole of his body weight, as if desperate to get the dead heart beneath his hands to start beating once more.
It was utterly devastating to see.
His Dad wasn’t normally good with emotions, unless it was anger or upset. But the man on top of Froggie was frenzied, sobbing so hard and screaming complete nonsense, that it was a wonder that he had enough air to blow into the corpse’s mouth at all. Forcing the chest up and down, up and down.
But it wasn’t catching, it wasn’t doing anything.
That spark inside the corpse, that spark that had once made Froggie, Froggie, was just gone.
That thing wasn’t their Froggie anymore.
His hand reached out, and he felt all of two years old again, reaching out for Froggie to kiss his booboos better, a tiny pale hand that always found a home inside a too-warm one.
A slightly larger pale hand now touched that same skin and it was chilled like ice. He recoiled at the wrongness of the sensation.
“Froggie.” He whimpered.
Something that finally seemed to spurn the acknowledgment of the other living beings in the room. Although now it was Robbie who couldn’t look away from the dead.
“Robbie.” Phoebe sounded strangled. “Robbie, please go back to bed.” A forced tearful smile that never reached his eyes.
“…There’s nothing you can do.”
“He wouldn’t want you to see him like this.” His Dad sounded utterly destroyed, his voice was wrecked and almost as bad as he looked.
“Well, I don’t give a damn about what he wants!” Blood pooled in Robbie’s cheeks. His teeth were gritted tightly and he flung his athame and blood book onto the bed, climbing up on his hands and knees to join them. “I’m going to save his life!”
Vlad blinked at him, and those ruddy feral eyes honed in on the ritualistic items before him. His mouth falling open slightly in shock. Robbie could see the fangs playing peekaboo there.
Then his gaze turned back to his fallen son and he was resolute all at once.
“What do you want us to do?”
His Dad was aghast. “Robbie, what are you on about?” A sad laugh as he stopped giving chest compressions and sat back with a tearful desolation about him. “Love, there’s nothing you can do.” He sounded like he was already dead. His father opened his arms for a hug or maybe absolution, but Robbie simply shook his head, setting his jaw tightly as he took his Book of Shadows into his arms.
He opened it to a blank page and used the sharp edge of the cover to garner a drop of blood from his thumb. Pressing it to the parchment.
Amy, I need candles for the circle and symbols of earth, air, fire and water to call each corner.
Please.
“Here you are, little witch.”
The candles were made of long strips of white and black wax, life and death, five that he set to one side, a vial of water (at least he sincerely hoped it was water), and a handful of …dirt.
Yes, of course, thank you so much Amy for this handful of old black dirt without a container.
“Cheeky little brat.”
He resisted the urge to stick out his tongue.
Instead he snatched up the candles and all but threw them into his Bunic’s arms. “Here! Make a circle around the bed but don’t light them.”
“What are you doing, darling? Where did those come from?!”
His Bapuji’s voice sounded weird.
Not a bad kind of weird, but like he’d never smoked a ciggie before in his life or ever even gotten sick in the first place. Robbie turned over to see blood tears drying on a Bapuji that he’d only ever seen on old album covers, except this one had red eyes, fangs that stuck out farther than his existing teeth and a strange feral sheen about him, with the way he focused on everything Robbie was holding.
The only thing the little witch could say was: “Oh God, it actually worked.”
The next thing was: “I summoned them. Please I’ve got to heal him, Bapuji. I need you to get Brimi off the floor and Uncle Joe out of the corner. Please trust me, I can do this!” His voice was verging on the desperate and his Bapuji must have seen something there, because he jumped into action.
Uncle Jim helped as well, his Uncle Jim who looked at him in a way that he never had before.
Almost with something akin to fear. Fear of him or fear for him, the boy didn’t know.
“Bri, please get on the bed, love… Yes, there. Now that’s the ticket.”
“Joe, darling, come we can’t do this without you.”
It was only when they were all on the bed, looking at him in varying states of shock and confusion that he picked up his athame again.
And used the sharpness to carve a pentacle into the soft pale flesh of his hand.
Blood welled up from the deep slashes in his flesh, like oil from the deep dark recesses of the earth. His Bapuji swallowed hard, turning away from the blood with the trembling form of a newly turned vampire, while his Dad cried out and snatched up his son’s injured hand with his own.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”
Trying to blot at the raw flesh as if to stop the bleeding.
Robbie snatched his hand back defiantly. Setting his jaw against the only person who could out-stubborn him. Their usual peacekeeper was a corpse between them.
“Robert Deacon!”
He completely ignored his father and turned to the group at large.
“Join hands and don’t scream.”
He took the dirt into his own.
“I call to the guardians of the North! Children of the earth and new life! Hear my cry, bring back your son who cannot die!”
He spoke in a voice that wasn’t his own. But one that wasn’t Amy’s either, his casting voice was deep, raw and gravelly like it was being dragged up from the very pits of hell. Blue flames exploded in his palms to burn up the dirt, and the candles at the front of the bed lit up with hellish light.
Then the vial of water.
“I call to the guardians of the West! Children of the sea and change! Hear my cry, bring back one who cannot die!”
Then he paused. Looking at the many faces pressed in a circle around him, looking at him like they never had before. Like in that moment he wasn’t their son, he wasn’t little Robbie Deacon anymore. He was a monster. A thing of nightmares.
“I need something made of metal to call the guardians of fire…”
Instantly his Bunic was pressing a black steel ring with the face of a gargoyle into his hand.
“I call to the guardians of the South! Children of fire and passion! Hear my cry, bring back a father who cannot die!”
Then he held his athame into the air, still dripping with his own blood.
“I call to the guardians of the East! Children of air and loss! Hear my cry, save one who cannot die!”
Suddenly the entire room was ablaze with hellfire, flames that wouldn’t burn anything except for what Robbie wanted them to. His eyes were closed as he reached out and laid a hand on his Froggie’s bare chest.
“Lower, Robert. Find his iliac crest, where his blood cells are made. Wake up the marrow.”
He slid his hands down lower, to hug his father’s hips. Staining the icy skin with his blood.
Under Amy’s careful guidance he forced the blood cells to reform, forced the vampiric blood in those veins to start jostling about once again. Fighting inside the body to manipulate it. To get that heart beating. He poured everything he had into it.
Froggie holding his hands as he stumbled through his first steps, his first lost tooth, his first triumphs and his first defeats, his first crush, his first broken heart: all the milestones of his first thirteen years of life.
Dancing around the kitchen with socks as ballet shoes.
He never cared about his father’s unique lineage or the red eyes and fangs. He never cared about the baggies of blood in their fridge or anything that they couldn’t control.
His Froggie was always perfect in his eyes.
He always knew how much the family meant to his Froggie, but he also knew without a doubt, that above all else. They, he and his siblings, were the loves of Froggie’s life.
Reading goodnight stories in funny voices to make them laugh, coming up behind them to sweep them up in his arms, tickling and kissing the daylights out of them. Spinning them around up on his shoulders.
Froggie would’ve done anything for them. He had even given his life for Bapuji. The purest kind of love was selfless love.
Love beyond all confines.
Please. He doesn’t deserve this. Amy, please.
He felt the small twitch and then how that deadened heart began to beat once again, slow at first and then in the frantic pounding staccato beat of a dhampir.
Froggie’s skin grew flush with an uncomfortable heat, and his fanning dark hair began to lighten. Half-mast blue glassy eyes darkened to a crimson red, the milky haze fading away.
Roger Taylor woke up screaming.
Jackknifing up ramrod straight with full vampiric features displayed: wrinkled bat nose, elongated fangs and bloody eyes. Alive, so fucking alive.
Well, about as alive as the living dead could be.
The flames on Robbie’s body were extinguished all at once, and he flung himself into his Froggie’s trembling arms, sobbing like he was three years old again instead of thirteen.
Clinging to that bloody skin and letting that too-fast heartbeat fill his ears with its heavenly sound.
-X-
The fact that his dads’ bed was strong enough to hold all of them (Froggie, Dad, Brimi, Bapuji, Mum, Auntie Dom, Uncle Phoebe, Uncle Jim and Uncle Joe), was pretty spectacular, considering all of them were clinging to Froggie and each other, without the slightest thought of letting go.
Dom tore his dads and uncles a new asshole each for not calling her once things went sour with the change (the one that apparently everybody knew about but him) and Froggie seemed to be reeling from the fact that he’d nearly ended up six-feet under.
Robbie shook his head from where his face was still smushed into his Froggie’s furnace-warm chest.
“No,” His voice was small, eyes still closed. “The living dead can’t die.”
His Bunic was sitting by the windowsill, a gentle smile on the young yet ancient face.
But that smile faded when turned on his grandson, edged by a touch of knowing sadness.
“Which one was it, guriță?” He asked softly, eyes shaded. “Which demon?”
Froggie was sitting up at once, looking at Vlad with bewilderment.
“What demon, Dad? What are you talking about?”
Vlad gestured to Robbie, then turned fully to face the teenager. “Which demon did you sell your soul to, Robert?”
To say that all hell broke loose would be an understatement.
He simply hung his head and spoke over the throng.
“Avnas. And I didn’t sell it, I let him lay claim.”
Vlad cocked an eyebrow, “A Prince of Hell? Well. I suppose you deserve credit for shooting high.”
“So I wasn’t hallucinating you being on fire?”
His Froggie sounded sick. Robbie just shook his head. Still not daring to raise his gaze from where it was examining the drops of blood on the bedclothes, ones that looked like rose petals spread across the plush duvet.
“You’re thirteen years old! How in the hell did you sell your soul to a demon?! Why? What possessed you to do that?”
His Dad looked livid and it was finally enough for Robbie to raise his head and glare with everything he had.
“I was seven years old!” He wailed, fists clenched and tears welling up in his eyes. “It wasn’t exactly in my life plan, alright?”
He whipped his head around to meet their stares head-on. “Yes! I’m a contract-witch, I let a demon lay claim on my soul to save my little brother’s life, to have the power to save all of yours, and I’d do it again if given half the chance!”
He was crying genuine human tears.
“No need to worry about my damnation!” He let out a little hysterical laugh. One of his Froggie’s favorite words. “I’ve already gone and damned myself.”
His Brimi, his closet father at the moment, dragged him into a hug so crushing that he whimpered. The others followed suit.
He almost didn’t hear Amy’s sad voice, heavy and guilty in his head. He never knew a demon could feel remorse.
“Little witch, I am so sorry.”
-X-
Phoebe turned Joe into a lycanthrope once he started showing signs of having AIDS as well.
They had been together for as long as Robbie could remember and he threw white petals at their little forest wedding in the backyard.
Their family grew as he did, every years or so bringing more siblings with it.
Josh came only a year or so after his first meeting with Amy. Luke and Cam were his Mum’s last foray into the baby-making front. And he was old enough to have fathered them himself by the time they came along. But he loved them all the same.
Tiger Lilly and Rufus Tiger Taylor came after a family trip to Mexico.
They were naguals, shape-shifters who could take the form of jaguars. Mesoamerican indian folklore called them protective spirits that guarded the rural villages from the dark sprits who lurked in the deepest parts of the jungle.
He called them his little pain-in-ass imps who were always underfoot, causing mischief with their half-transformed faces and bending Bapuji’s cat army to their will.
But beyond it all, they were his baby brother and sister, and he loved them thusly.
Lola May Taylor was a Christmas baby, left on their doorstep like a little Christmas miracle.
Obviously her parents hadn’t realized that they’d chosen to leave their baby on the Addams’ family doorstep. (Or maybe they were more like the Munsters?)
She and Aunt Mary’s little boys completed their family.
As years passed, he wondered how long it would be until Bapuji and Froggie would change Dad and Brimi.
The answer for Dad was on a warm spring day in March, when he was in his late fifties.
Curly hair shot with thick waves of gray that they teased made him look like The Bride of Frankenstein. He had been in the kitchen with Phoebe that morning, making a cup of coffee with Bapuji sitting up on the countertop stealing kisses, as the family all sat around the table and wherever else they could fit.
Hanging out during a weekend brekkie.
When his father’s face had suddenly creased with a surprise pain, and the cup had fallen from his grip, shattering into a dozen pieces on the floor. They’d all watched it fall.
Watched as their father collapsed to his knees, gripping his chest and curling inward from the pain of his heart-attack.
For an instant Robbie actually thought the older Deacon was bending down to clean up the mess.
Froggie and Bapuji changed him on the kitchen floor, all of the kids huddled around like a horde of emperor penguins. Robbie ready to conjure, just in case.
Dad woke up to his new life with everyone he loved watching with bated breath. Robbie would never get used to the way he looked like his vampire Dad’s twin.
Brimi lasted the longest, he was in his early seventies when he came home from from a routine doctor’s visit with a set of test results in one hand and a clutch of freshly cut flowers in the other. They changed him in bed, all three of them together. Robbie sat against the door into the wee hours of the morning, listening, ready just in case. But he wasn’t needed.
They were all okay.
And it was only the beginning…
-X-
His Amy, his friend, his contractor, his demon, his lover, was a living, breathing demonic asshole.
But Robbie had to give him credit, a living, breathing demonic asshole with morals. Nothing happened between them until Robbie Deacon was a grown man, a goddamn adult with a free-for-all choice of what he wanted to do to with his life. He didn’t owe anything to Amy or hell until the day he was steered away from the pearly gates.
But they fell in love anyway.
Even though demons were meant to never love humans. Even though he should hate the demon prince for claiming his soul like a greedy asshole who didn’t want him tearing Hell apart by the seams.
They loved anyway. The truest rebels of all.
“My little witch, my sunshine… I’ll burn the contact, take it all away, if you only ask.”
“No, this is my life. My choice.”
You’re my choice.
He didn’t say. He didn’t need to.
It wasn’t ordinary. It wasn’t normal. But it was theirs.
They loved.
-X-
“Mama, life had just begun
But now I’ve gone and thrown it all away…
Mama, ooh (any way the wind blows)
Didn’t mean to make you cry
If I’m not back again this time tomorrow
Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters
…I’m just a poor boy, nobody loves me
He’s just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity
Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?
Bismillah! No, we will not let you go (let him go!)
Bismillah! We will not let you go (let him go!)
Will not let you go (let him go!)
Never, never let you go
Never let me go, oh
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
Oh, mama mia, mama mia (mama mia, let me go)
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me…”
-Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody
#maylor#frian#joger#froger#breaky#deacury#fic#submission#author: waywardrunawaycherryblossom#series: another one bites at dusk#au#roger: vampire#freddie: vampire#john: vampire#brian: vampire#extended family#relationship: polyamorous#relationship: established
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